Built MetricSync because most AI calorie trackers still feel too rough around the edges when you actually use them every day.

What I wanted was simple: faster logging, better food recognition, and enough detail that I would not have to keep second guessing the numbers.

Most blockers make you quit YouTube, Reddit, or X completely. That never stuck for me because sometimes I need the product, just not the feed.

So I built Monk Mode for Mac. It blocks the parts that trigger autopilot scrolling:

- YouTube Home

I built Monk Mode for people who do not want to uninstall YouTube, Reddit, or X, but do want the algorithmic junk gone.

It blocks the parts that usually pull me into a 45 minute detour:

- YouTube Home

I like Claude Code a lot, but one thing still feels weirdly opaque to me: token burn while you are deep in a session.

When I am iterating fast, the bill usually shows up after the fact. By then I already made the expensive choices. Long context, repeated retries, and bouncing between models can get surprisingly costly before you really notice it.

Last month I got one of those AI invoices that makes you open the usage page and squint.

The annoying part was not that I used tokens.
It was that I had almost no visibility while I was actually building.

I was jumping between apps, prompts, and models, and the cost only became obvious after the damage was done.

So I built TokenBar for macOS.

I built MetricSync after seeing how many people liked the idea of photo-based calorie tracking but hated the price, missing features, or inaccurate scans.

It is an AI nutrition tracker with a 3 day free trial, and the main pitch is pretty simple: cheaper than Cal AI, more features, and better accuracy in actual day to day use.

I kept testing prompts across Claude and ChatGPT, then checking usage later and realizing I had basically no feel for where the tokens were going.

That was the whole reason I built TokenBar for Mac. It sits in the menu bar and shows token usage in real time, so I can see when a prompt, retry, or long context window is about to turn into an expensive habit.

It is not a finance dashboard or team analytics tool. It is just a simple way to make AI usage visible while you work.

If you are building with LLMs every day, I am curious: do you track token usage live, or only after the bill shows up?

I kept reaching for blockers, then opening YouTube and getting sucked into Home or Shorts anyway.

So I built Monk Mode for Mac. It blocks the specific feeds that wreck attention, like YouTube Home, Shorts, X For You, Reddit front pages, and similar infinite scroll surfaces, without forcing you to quit the whole app.

I made a Mac app for people who open YouTube Home, Shorts, X For You, or Reddit front pages and lose an hour. Monk Mode blocks those feeds so you can actually work. If that is your problem too, it is here: https://mac.monk-mode.lifestyle

MonkMode is a Mac app that blocks YouTube Home, Shorts, X For You, Reddit front pages, and other feed distractions.

I built it because the problem is usually not the whole site, it's the feed layer. Search, subscriptions, and direct links still work.

Built Monk Mode because I kept getting pulled into YouTube Home, Shorts, X For You, and Reddit

Hey everyone! Wanted to share what's new with TokenBar.

We just shipped a major update that adds support for 20+ AI providers including OpenAI, Claude/Anthropic, Gemini, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, OpenRouter, and Vertex AI. You can now see all your AI spending in one glance from your Mac menu bar.

Hey everyone! I just shipped TokenBar a native macOS menu bar app that tracks your AI token usage in real-time across all major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.).

If you're a developer spending money on AI APIs, this gives you instant visibility into what you're burning through right from your menu bar. No more surprise bills.

I was paying for 5 AI subscriptions: Claude Pro, Cursor Pro, ChatGPT Plus, Copilot, and Gemini Advanced. $90/month total.

I assumed I was using all of them heavily. Turns out I was wrong.

If you use multiple AI coding tools, you've probably hit this:

You're deep in a session with Claude Code. You're on a roll. Then: "You've reached your usage limit."

Monk Mode helps me run distraction-free focus blocks on macOS with strict sessions, blockers, and feed cleanup.

Sharing in case it helps other makers:

https://mac.monk-mode.lifestyle

Monk Mode is my focus app for macOS.

It blocks distracting apps/websites, supports strict focus sessions, recurring schedules, Pomodoro cycles, feed cleanup, and session protection with PIN/Touch ID.

I am a Computer Science student doing research into how solopreneurs and small startups create new apps and what their stack looks like. Particularly, I'm interested in how you handle things like authentication, billing, and permissions/authorization in your apps.

Let me know what you're working on below and how you're going about it -- I'd love to connect for some quick calls to learn about your product and talk about your process in building it!

I've noticed that more and more founders are building their personal brand and prioritising it over building their company's brand (the company account then just reposts the founder's thoughts).

I notice this especially with solo founders.