I built a free app to track my preps — sharing it in case it's useful to anyone here

Posted by LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 36 comments

Hey all — solo dev here. I kept losing track of what I had in my pantry and kits, when things expired, and how long my supplies would actually last. Nothing I tried quite fit (too generic, too much cloud nonsense, or a paywall for basics), so I built my own.

It's called PPantry. Local-first (data lives on the device, works offline, no account required), scans barcodes, tracks expirations, handles kits like a 72-hour bag or a first-aid tin, and gives you a rough "how many days does this last?" estimate.

Free forever. No tiers, no feature gating. I shipped it this week.

Not trying to sell anything — I just figured some of you might get use out of it, and honestly I'd really value feedback from people who actually prep. What's missing? What's annoying?

Tear it apart.

→ ppantry.app

[-]

broncostarr@reddit

I'm using it from Italy, and maybe that's why scanning the barcode give me product name but not the exp date. anyway I like it, thank you!

[-]

Typical_Day_8849@reddit

That's a good point on the Italy issue! I've been using AYR4ALL for the family side of things — evacuation plans, 72h kit, risk scenarios by country. It even has a quick-exit section and a family info sheet I shared with everyone at home. What got me was the 14 scenarios, everything from drought (super relevant where I live) to cyberattacks. It calculates threats in real time based on your location. Honestly kind of addictive lol Different focus but worth a look if you want to go deeper.

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

ciao! it really depends on the barcode datasets, sometimes it doesn't recognise the barcode at all, sometimes gives plenty of info - will try to find better barcode datasets to integrate

[-]

broncostarr@reddit

I buy only stores brand we have here, if this can help. Adding the exp date I see that I have to change the day first, so picking it in current month and then change month/year otherwise I cannot select it. not a problem at all, just fyi

[-]

Apprehensive_Onion53@reddit

Thanks for this! My neurospicy brain needs organized lists to help me prep, and the custom kit templates provide a good visual of what I should focus on adding to specific kits and how much.

[-]

Capital_Sherbet_6507@reddit

What tech stack did you use to develop it? And is there a github? I personally would contribute to a flutter-based open source app.

[-]

SLGuitar@reddit

I'm curious if this can be setup and run locally on one's own home server. That way it keeps everything locally with the user.

[-]

Maintenance_Managed@reddit

Came here to say "nice try, Fedboi" but saw local first so good looking out

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

Ahah ok - let me know your thoughts

[-]

ReplacementAlive4370@reddit

Cool app, thank OP

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

thanks! 🙏

[-]

INeDiAzomg@reddit

I had the same idea, same PWA approach, same features (except for the barcodes) and I just came here to share my app but yours is better, so nevermind 😅⚰️

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

you'll never know mine is better if you don't do it!

[-]

bleenken@reddit

Amazing. I needed something like this so badly. Thank you for sharing!

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

Glad you find it useful

[-]

JasonHofmann@reddit

Seems risky to spend a lot of time entering inventory data into a cloud-based web app. There’s no guarantee the app will still exist in a year, or five, or ten. Even if the data is stored locally, if the app is gone, how do you view the data?

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

You can export/import data anytime

[-]

bearchops23@reddit

Love this, thanks. Installed.

Any suggestion for adding pets to the household?

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

Ahaha that’s a great idea, have to study consumption if we want to have any good calculation

[-]

bearchops23@reddit

My 8 year old dog is roughly the size and weight of an 8 year old child, so, I'm guessing that would be a fair equivalent 😅

I'm a passive prepper, so didn't know if maybe there was some gold standard rule of thumb I could input. Proper water storage would be my only concern, the food part is easy.

[-]

devious_panda@reddit

Any thoughts on sharing the code/repo or allowing us to host as a simple web container?

It could be nice so a sync method could be setup to pull and access this from multiple devices/users (a household) instead of just being stuck on ones phone

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

in the settings there is cloud sync

[-]

devious_panda@reddit

Thanks, I saw the "data export" ability but was looking more to use my own network/database as well without relying your sync dependent on AWS in the mix

[-]

DevGn0me@reddit

I like it. Works good on my side nothing need to change 👍🏻

[-]

crf370@reddit

Nice app, I think this will be very useful. Not sure I can figure out how to use your Kit templates. Is there a way to create a custom kit from them.

And is there a way to sync between desktop and mobile? I prefer to capture this much information using a full size keyboard.

[-]

LeBienfaitDeLaLune@reddit (OP)

hi and thanks! The kit template is more of a gimmick for now, basically it works like it looks at all your pantry items and automatically score them towards that, so if you will need to assemble that standard kit you see what's missing or not. I will work on custom kits later in the roadmap.

I added a cloud-sync because I have the same preference, it's in the setting, you have to enable it first than put your email for syncing, and in the other devices you just enable it and login with your email and password. It's all encrypted but when you do the sync, you go out the local first principle, but it's practical.

[-]