Tasks · checked 2026-10-19Can I vibecode Amazing Marvin?
YES· one-shottable
For one person, the core of Marvin is a nested task tree, a day planner with time estimates, saved filters, recurring tasks, a focus timer and a few prompts for the tasks you keep avoiding. An agent can build that in one sitting on SQLite and serve it as an installable web app that works on the laptop and the phone browser. The gap is what took the product years: native apps that sync offline, two-way calendar sync with Google and Outlook, and the breadth of its settings. Build the handful you use; if you want the whole kit, Super Productivity is the closest free app.
$12/moprice
$144you'd save a year
one sittingbuild time
—people replaced it
What you need on hand.
DifficultyBeginner · No setup beyond your agent.
TimeAbout two hours for the first version
- Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
- Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
- A way to reach it from your phoneTailscale on a home machine, or a small VPS with HTTPS; the PWA install needs HTTPS.
- Your Marvin backupCreate it under Account > Backups and ask the agent to import the JSON.
Before you buildMarvin has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Super Productivity covers much of the same ground for free.
- 1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
- 2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
- 3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.
The prompt
Build me a personal task planner to replace Amazing Marvin. Requirements: - Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Hono API and a Vite + Preact front end. `npm start` serves http://localhost:4730. Make it an installable PWA (`vite-plugin-pwa`) so the phone can use it. - Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/tasks.db. One items table for tasks, projects and categories (parent id), with title, note, labels, due date, do date, start date, duration estimate in minutes, dread 0-3, important, urgent, backburner and a recurrence rule (`rrule`). Deleted items go to a trash for 30 days. Time entries live in their own table. - Day planner: Today lists tasks with a do date of today, drag to reorder, and shows total estimated time against a daily capacity I set. A week view lets me drag tasks between days. - Smart lists: saved filters over labels, dates, estimate, dread and importance (AND and OR), with a count badge in an editable sidebar. - Focus: a one-task Super Focus screen and a Pomodoro timer (25/5 by default, configurable) that writes time entries. Finishing a task awards points toward rewards I define myself. - Avoidance helper: a short question flow (too big, unclear, boring, dreaded) that offers to split the task into subtasks, shrink it to five minutes or move it to the backburner. - Calendar: a read-only /calendar.ics feed of tasks with do dates. - Single user. One password from .env (signed cookie), JSON backup download and restore. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first. No outbound calls. - Out of scope: native mobile apps, two-way Google or Outlook calendar sync, habit tracking, sharing. - README: running it on a home server reachable over Tailscale or a tunnel, and how to back up ./data.
Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.
Then keep going
Next prompts, same folder.
The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Amazing Marvin.
Extend the task planner in this folder. Requirements: - Connect one CalDAV calendar (`tsdav`) with CALDAV_URL, CALDAV_USER and CALDAV_PASSWORD in .env. - Show its events on the day planner as read-only blocks and subtract them from the daily capacity. - Let me turn a task with a duration into a time block that is written to the calendar, and update or delete the event when the task changes. - If the calendar is unreachable, keep working and show a warning. - Update the README.
Add habit tracking to the task planner in this folder. Requirements: - Habits with a name, a target (daily, or N times a week) and a colour. - A strip on the Today screen to tick habits off, and a page with a 12-week grid per habit. - Show the current streak and the best streak, counting rest days I mark in advance. - Include habits in the JSON backup and restore. - Update the README.
Add an email inbox to the task planner in this folder. Requirements: - Poll one IMAP mailbox from .env every 5 minutes with `imapflow`. - Each new message becomes an inbox task: subject as title, first 500 characters as note, sender as a label. - Mark processed messages by Message-ID so none repeats, and never delete mail. - Update the README.
Add a weekly review screen to the task planner in this folder. Requirements: - Step through: tasks with no do date, tasks overdue, tasks untouched for 30 days, and backburner items. - For each, buttons to schedule today, schedule next week, backburner or delete. - At the end show what was finished this week with the time tracked per project. - Update the README.
What you lose
- Native Mac, Windows, iOS and Android apps that work offline and sync
- Two-way calendar sync with Google Calendar and Outlook
- The 100+ features and settings: habit tracking, goals, ambient focus music and more
- Email-to-task capture, the public API and the desktop widgets
- Personal support from the maker
Why people still pay
Marvin is a kit of ways to plan, and people keep paying because one of them finally sticks. Reddit threads praise it for ADHD and also call it a lot, so what you pay for is trying strategies without building them.
Amazing Marvin or your own copy?
Over
Your usage
3h ×$/h
Amazing Marvin, 1 yr$144
Your own copy, 1 yr$35running + build session
You keep$109pays for itself in the first month
Estimate · Runs on a machine you already own or a $5 VPS. The build is token usage on your agent plan.
Take your data, then cancel.
1 · Take your data out of Amazing Marvin
- 1Open the main menu, then Account, then Backups, and click Create Backup; all categories are selected by default and completed tasks and projects should stay included.
- 2Leave the Also back up items ticked (day items, time blocks, settings, smart lists, rewards and more) and click Backup to download the file.
- 3The default file is compressed; untick Compress for plain JSON, or unpack it with a tool such as 7-Zip and open the JSON in a text editor.
- 4Time tracking has its own export: in the Time Tracking report, use Export CSV on the detailed breakdown table.
2 · Cancel Amazing Marvin
- 1Subscribed on the web or desktop: open the main menu, click Your account, go to Plan & Subscription, scroll to Cancel Subscription, give a reason and click Confirm Cancellation.
- 2Subscribed in the iPhone or iPad app: cancel through Apple (Manage subscription in the app, or Settings > your name > Subscriptions).
- 3Subscribed in the Android app: cancel through Google Play under Payments & subscriptions.
- 4You keep access until the end of the paid period and your data is kept, so you can come back later.
- Deleting the Marvin app from your phone does not cancel the subscription.
- To delete your account, cancel the subscription first.
- Refunds are not offered, so cancel before the renewal date; moving from monthly to yearly means cancelling, waiting for the paid month to end, then signing up for yearly.
- Marvin also has a public API and a command-line tool, which help if you want to move tasks into another system by script.
Checked 2026-10-19 against Amazing Marvin's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
The escape hatch
Don't feel like building it? These are already free.
Super ProductivityOpen sourceMIT-licensed to-do app with timeboxing, time tracking and Jira, GitLab and GitHub integrations; data stays local unless you add sync.★ 23k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
Web, desktop, AndroidVisit ↗VikunjaOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 self-hosted task manager with lists, kanban, calendar views and a CalDAV endpoint.★ 5.8k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗TaskwarriorOpen sourceMIT command-line task manager with filters, dates, recurrence and urgency scoring.★ 6.1k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
CLIVisit ↗
Web, desktop, AndroidVisit ↗VikunjaOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 self-hosted task manager with lists, kanban, calendar views and a CalDAV endpoint.★ 5.8k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗TaskwarriorOpen sourceMIT command-line task manager with filters, dates, recurrence and urgency scoring.★ 6.1k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
CLIVisit ↗
The numbers
Amazing Marvin pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marvin Pro | $12 | $8 | All features, unlimited tasks and projects, custom workflows and views, analytics, apps for web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, personal email support. |
- Free tier
- After the trial you can't add or complete tasks until you subscribe; your data stays.
- Billing
- Monthly at $12 or yearly at $96; you can switch, and the page says a switch to annual prorates the rest of the paid month. No refunds are offered, since the trial is meant to replace them.
- Hidden costs
- None listed: one plan with no add-ons. The page offers a pay-what-you-can arrangement by contacting the company.
- Source
- amazingmarvin.com
Also on the list
Related apps
No free plan. A 14-day trial with full access needs no credit card; students get 50% off by email.
Yes. An AI coding agent such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can build a usable personal version in one session with the prompt on this page, running on your own machine.
About $12 a month on the Marvin Pro plan, $144 a year (checked 2026-10-19).
Native Mac, Windows, iOS and Android apps that work offline and sync; Two-way calendar sync with Google Calendar and Outlook; The 100+ features and settings: habit tracking, goals, ambient focus music and more; Email-to-task capture, the public API and the desktop widgets; Personal support from the maker. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.
Yes: Super Productivity (open source), Vikunja (open source), Taskwarrior (open source).