# Build brief — a focused alternative to Motion

> **Verdict:** Partly, if you narrow it · **Buildability:** 63/100 · **Category:** Tasks Calendar
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/motion
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Motion. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Motion** — AI calendar and task scheduler that auto-plans your workday. It currently costs $34/mo.

You can build an auto-scheduler for your own tasks, but robust calendar conflict handling, integrations, and productized rescheduling take real engineering.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Motion that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

Create tasks with duration/deadline/priority, read calendar availability, solve a schedule, and write time blocks back.

- Build a focused single-user workflow with real persistence, search, and export.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Scheduling algorithm.
- Hosted backend.
- Notifications.
- Task database.

### Data and integrations

- Google/Microsoft calendar OAuth.

Each of these needs a real account, credential, or quota. Set them up before writing feature code.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build me a personal task auto-scheduler to replace Motion. Requirements:

- Node + better-sqlite3 + googleapis. Tasks in SQLite: title, duration estimate,
  deadline, priority, done. A small Express page on localhost:4920 to add and edit
  tasks, plus a `plan` CLI command.
- Read my Google Calendar free/busy for the next 14 days (OAuth token cached
  locally); respect working hours 09:00-18:00 and a lunch block, both set in
  config.json.
- The planner is greedy, not clever: earliest deadline first, weighted by priority,
  packing tasks into free slots in 30-minute increments and splitting anything over
  90 minutes into chunks.
- Write the plan back as calendar events with a [plan] prefix. Replanning deletes
  only [plan] events and relays them, never touching real meetings.
- Overdue or unschedulable tasks show in red on the web page instead of being
  silently dropped.
- A 07:30 node-cron run replans the day and emails me the schedule (SMTP in .env).
- Single user, local only, no accounts, no telemetry beyond the Google API calls.
- Out of scope: team scheduling, mobile apps, and meeting-invite handling. It plans
  my solo work around a calendar it treats as read-only truth.
- README: the Google Cloud console OAuth setup. Treat that as its own task.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Multi-calendar sync.
- Recurring work rules.
- Mobile apps.
- Team scheduling.
- The last 20 percent is sync, migration fidelity, speed, and edge cases.
- Connectors, OAuth flows, and vendor API changes require constant upkeep.

## What you still own after launch

- Secure credentials, rotate secrets, and handle provider rate limits.
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
- Maintain every third-party integration as APIs and OAuth rules change.

## Risk

**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

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Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/motion