06:00morning brief · your day, solved before you sit down

Your day. Already planned.

Cognate takes a pile of tasks and calendar busy time, then builds a time-blocked day. Planning runs locally and deterministically — in Rust on desktop and a TypeScript mirror on the web. AI can help with estimates, but the solver places the work. Your data stays local unless you choose sync or a cloud AI provider.

free · open source · no account · no server required — your platform is highlighted above

Desktop installers are published on GitHub Releases. Mobile builds are not currently offered.

09:00 — 11:00 deep work · the planner engine

A solver, not a suggestion.

Most planners give you an empty grid and wish you luck. Cognate treats your day as a constraint problem and solves it deterministically — matching inputs produce a repeatable result. AI does not choose time slots. You can inspect the scheduling rationale and re-plan when your tasks or availability change.

planner.rs

The scheduler is native Rust, mirrored in TypeScript for the web build. It places every task by priority, deadline, and estimated effort.

energy_curve

An optional focus-time heuristic uses completion and Pomodoro history to estimate when demanding work may fit best.

calendar.ics

Import .ics busy time from Google, Outlook, Apple Calendar, or another provider. Planner availability accounts for imported events.

re_plan

Change tasks, pin a block, or update availability, then run Auto-plan to rebuild the day. Background reflow checks about every five minutes while the app is open.

pinned

Some things are sacred. Pin a block and the solver plans everything else around it.

calendar status — .ics import is available across desktop and browser. Google and Microsoft free/busy connectors are an early desktop integration and need provider setup; verify freshness in the app before relying on them.

13:15 — 13:30 desktop companion · reminders while tucked away

Close the window. Keep your reminders.

On desktop, closing the window hides Cognate in the system tray. While the app is still running, it checks your local plan and sends native reminders for scheduled block starts, tasks due today, and overdue tasks.

14:00 — 15:30 sync preview · optional encrypted relay

Your relay stores encrypted snapshots.

Cognate includes an optional passphrase-encrypted sync path and a small Rust relay that stores sealed data. Sync is still being hardened: operation coverage, conflict recovery, and freshness need more work before promising seamless, conflict-free multi-device use. The app remains useful on one device without a relay.

entity  task:9f2c
field   title
value   "Call landlord"
clock   2026-07-07T09:12:03.412Z · a41f

aG9uZXN0bHkgbm90aGluZyB0byBz
ZWUgaGVyZSBqdXN0IEFFUy0yNTYt
R0NNIG92ZXIgUEJLREYyIGtleXMu
IGdvIHBsYW4geW91ciBkYXku4pyU

Encryption is tested. The relay receives ciphertext plus room/device metadata; this prototype does not yet provide complete forward secrecy or protect availability against a malicious relay.

16:00 — 17:00 collaboration preview · shared projects in development

Share a project and work through it together.

Cognate has shared projects, comments, assignees, and basic presence. This area is still under development: membership changes, permission scope, revocation, and team capacity need additional reliability work. Do not use it yet for sensitive work that depends on strict access revocation.

19:00 — 19:30 advisory hours · ai on your terms

The AI advises. It never decides.

Quick Add can parse common task details locally without a model. Optional AI tools can estimate, enrich, and draft: configure a supported provider in Settings, bring your own API key, or run a local model through Ollama. Cloud providers receive the prompt data you send them, so choose what to share.

22:30 — 23:00 shutdown ritual

End the day empty.

Start with one task, add your calendar busy time, and run Auto-plan. Cognate is free, open source, and local-first; desktop data is stored on your own device. Back up important work and verify that a restore works.