Coding with Grandma

Turn your iPhone into an ESP32 programmer. $0.99 once. Yours forever.

Snap a photo of your breadboard. AI writes the code. Flash your ESP32 wirelessly over Bluetooth. One-time purchase. No subscriptions. No accounts. No ads. No telemetry. Yours forever.

For makers, students, hobbyists, classrooms — and anyone who's always wanted to learn hardware but felt locked out by the tooling. iPhone app — $0.99, one-time pay, on the App Store. Web version — open-source, Apache 2.0 licensed, self-host from this repo or use our hosted build.

What's Included

Coding with Grandma v0.4 (ide.html) — The full development environment:

• Monaco code editor (same engine as VS Code) with custom "sunset-dark" theme
• Multi-provider AI code generation — choose between:
  • Ollama (free, runs on your computer)
  • Claude (Anthropic)
  • Gemini (Google, free tier available)
  • OpenAI (GPT)
• Browser-based firmware flashing via esptool-js — pick a compiled .bin and flash your ESP32 directly, no Arduino IDE required
• Save & Open — download sketches as .ino files and reopen them later
• Autosave — your draft is preserved in the browser between sessions
• Guided Lessons — step-by-step walkthroughs teaching one concept at a time (Blink Basics, Button Controls LED, Hello WiFi, Mini Sensor Dashboard)
• 12 starter templates with beginner-friendly comments: Blink LED, Button Input, WiFi Connect, Temperature, Servo, Web Server, OLED Display, NeoPixels, PIR Motion, Ultrasonic Distance, Bluetooth LE, and Analog Joystick
• Serial monitor with timestamped output
• One-click board connection via Web Serial API
• Tabbed sidebar: AI Assistant, Templates, Lessons, Settings
• API key management (stored locally, never shared)
• Code verification (checks for common mistakes)
• Mobile-responsive layout — works on tablets and phones
• Resizable panels and a professional dark interface with Lucide icons

Prompt Builder (index.html) — A simpler tool for beginners:

• Describe your project in plain English
• Pick your board and features
• Get a ready-to-use AI prompt for generating ESP32 code

Quick Start

1. Open ide.html in Chrome or Edge (double-click it!)
2. Pick a starter template from the sidebar, try a guided lesson, or describe your project and click "Generate Code with AI"
3. Plug in your ESP32 via USB and click "Connect"
4. When you're ready to flash, compile your sketch (Arduino IDE → Sketch → Export Compiled Binary for now) and click "Flash" to upload it right from the browser

Try It Online

GitHub Pages deployment ships with v0.4 — a live URL will go up as soon as Pages is enabled in repo settings (Settings → Pages → Source: GitHub Actions). The workflow is in .github/workflows/pages.yml.

Project Status

See ROADMAP.md for the full product vision including camera-based hardware identification, visual circuit builder, 3D collaboration, and on-device AI autonomy.

License

See LICENSE for details.