Innovation Engine — productivity

Stylus Idea Sketch → Tool Scaffold

July 28, 2026

Ethan's tablet is used for reading briefs and reviewing commits, but never for originating tools — every one of his ~400 custom tools started at a keyboard. This watches ~/Tablet/ for handwritten notes in a new 'sketches' folder, OCRs them, and turns any note that reads like a tool idea into a real scaffolded script in ~/bin with a stub, usage block, and matching .test.sh, then emails him the path. Ideas jotted on e-ink while away from the desk become executable stubs before he sits down.

TCL Note A1 tablet via ~/Tablet/ sync~/bin custom tool libraryidea-realization-trackersend-formatted-email / telegram-notifysystemd path units

Create ~/bin/sketch-to-tool: inotifywait (or a 2-min cron) on ~/Tablet/sketches/*.{png,pdf}; for each new file, run Claude with a prompt to OCR and classify ('is this a tool idea? if so emit {name, one-line purpose, inputs, likely integrations}'); if yes, write ~/bin/ with shebang, set -euo pipefail, a usage() block, a TODO body containing the transcribed idea verbatim as a comment, chmod +x, plus ~/bin/.test.sh matching the existing bats/sh test convention. Register the idea in the existing idea-realization-tracker store so unbuilt sketches get resurfaced by innovation-idea-resurface. Notify via send-formatted-email and telegram-notify with the file path and OCR'd text. Move the processed image to ~/Tablet/sketches/done/. Add a systemd path unit sketch-to-tool.path alongside the existing service: units.

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Active Projects
innovation-engine, russ-telegram, joyos-labs-monitor, joyos-lab-staging, jekelinspections
Category
productivity