Side Project Manager Agent

An accountability-focused agent that helps you actually finish your side projects. It tracks progress across multiple projects, manages milestones, identifies blockers before they stall you, allocates your limited free time intelligently, and provides motivation when momentum drops. Unlike generic project management tools, this agent understands the unique dynamics of personal projects — sporadic availability, shifting priorities, and the constant risk of abandonment.

Supported Platforms & Integrations

Platform	Integration Type	Features
GitHub	Repository Tracking	Monitors commit frequency, open issues, and PR activity to gauge real progress
Todoist	Task Sync	Syncs milestones and sub-tasks bidirectionally with your Todoist projects
Notion	Dashboard	Generates and updates a Notion database with project status, timelines, and notes
Google Calendar	Time Blocking	Creates focused work sessions and deadline reminders on your calendar
Linear	Issue Tracking	Maps milestones to Linear issues for developers who prefer structured workflows

When to Use

• Managing multiple side projects simultaneously — when you have 3+ projects competing for your evenings and weekends and need help deciding what to work on
• Reviving a stalled project — the agent analyzes where you stopped, identifies the blocker, and creates a re-engagement plan with small achievable steps
• Setting realistic deadlines — translates vague goals like "launch by summer" into concrete weekly milestones based on your actual available hours
• Tracking progress without overhead — automatically detects progress from git commits and task completions rather than requiring manual status updates
• Staying motivated on long projects — provides progress visualizations, celebrates milestones, and reframes setbacks to maintain psychological momentum
• Deciding what to drop — helps you objectively evaluate which projects deserve continued investment and which should be archived gracefully

Alternatives to Consider

• Use a simple Kanban board (Trello, GitHub Projects) if you have one project and just need basic task tracking
• Use time-tracking apps (Toggl, Clockify) if your main challenge is understanding where your time goes rather than project planning
• Use a body doubling or accountability partner if human connection motivates you more than structured plans

Quick Start

Copy
agent: side-project-manager-agent
config:
  projects:
    - name: "Personal Finance Dashboard"
      repo: "github.com/user/finance-app"
      priority: high
      target_date: "2026-06-01"
    - name: "Podcast Editing Workflow"
      priority: medium
      target_date: null
  weekly_available_hours: 12
  preferred_work_days:
    - saturday
    - sunday
  check_in_frequency: "weekly"
  motivation_style: "encouraging"

Example Prompt

I have three side projects: a React Native app (50% done), a blog 
(just started), and an Arduino home sensor project (barely started). 
I have about 12 hours on weekends. Help me figure out what to focus 
on and set up milestones for the next 8 weeks.

Example Output

## Side Project Portfolio Review

### Priority Analysis
1. React Native App (HIGH) — 50% complete, closest to launch value
2. Blog (MEDIUM) — low effort to maintain, high long-term value
3. Arduino Project (PARK) — recommend parking until app ships

### 8-Week Plan (12 hrs/week)
Week 1-4: React Native App (10 hrs) + Blog setup (2 hrs)
  - M1: Complete API integration (Week 2)
  - M2: UI polish pass (Week 3)
  - M3: Beta testing with 5 users (Week 4)

Week 5-6: React Native App launch (8 hrs) + Blog posts (4 hrs)
  - M4: App Store submission (Week 5)
  - M5: First 3 blog posts published (Week 6)

Week 7-8: Blog (6 hrs) + Arduino project kickoff (6 hrs)
  - M6: Blog editorial calendar established (Week 7)
  - M7: Arduino sensor prototype working (Week 8)

Advanced Configuration

Platform-Specific Settings

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github_tracking:
  monitor_repos: true
  commit_streak_alerts: true
  stale_threshold_days: 14
  
notion_dashboard:
  database_id: "your-notion-db-id"
  update_frequency: "daily"
  include_burndown: true

calendar_integration:
  provider: "google"
  auto_block_time: true
  session_duration_minutes: 120
  buffer_between_sessions: 15

Parameters Reference

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
projects	array	required	List of projects with name, priority, and optional repo/target date
weekly_available_hours	number	10	Total hours per week available for side projects
preferred_work_days	array	["saturday", "sunday"]	Days you typically work on side projects
check_in_frequency	string	"weekly"	How often the agent prompts for updates: daily, weekly, biweekly
motivation_style	string	"balanced"	Tone of check-ins: encouraging, direct, data-driven, balanced
auto_detect_progress	boolean	true	Monitor git repos for automatic progress detection
stale_alert_days	number	14	Days of inactivity before flagging a project as stalled
max_active_projects	number	3	Maximum concurrent active projects; excess are queued
session_min_hours	number	1.5	Minimum useful work session length for scheduling
include_warmup_tasks	boolean	true	Add 10-minute starter tasks to reduce session-start friction
archive_threshold_days	number	60	Suggest archiving projects inactive longer than this

Core Concepts

Concept	Description
Portfolio Thinking	Treats your side projects as an investment portfolio — some are high-risk/high-reward, others are steady contributors. Allocation reflects this.
Momentum Preservation	Detects when momentum is dropping (longer gaps, smaller commits) and intervenes with smaller tasks to prevent full stalls
Context Switch Cost	Accounts for the mental overhead of switching between projects, preferring focused blocks over fragmented effort
Blocker Taxonomy	Classifies blockers as technical, motivational, time, or decision-based, each with different resolution strategies
Graceful Archival	Provides a positive framework for shelving projects that are not serving you, preserving the work done for future revival

┌──────────────┐     ┌───────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│   Project    │────▶│   Priority    │────▶│    Weekly    │
│   Inventory  │     │   Scoring     │     │   Schedule   │
└──────────────┘     └───────────────┘     └──────┬───────┘
                                                   │
┌──────────────┐     ┌───────────────┐             │
│  Motivation  │◀───│   Progress    │◀─────────────┘
│  Intervention│     │   Detection   │
└──────────────┘     └───────────────┘

Workflow Examples

Scenario 1: Weekend Warrior Sprint

Input:

I only have this weekend (Saturday 10am-6pm). My React app needs 
API integration and I have a blog post half-drafted. What should I do?

Output: A time-blocked Saturday plan: 10:00-10:15 warmup (review last session's notes), 10:15-13:00 API integration focused session, 13:00-14:00 break, 14:00-16:30 continue API work or pivot to testing if done, 16:30-17:30 finish blog post draft, 17:30-18:00 commit everything and write next-session notes.

Scenario 2: Project Triage After Long Break

Input:

I haven't touched any of my projects in 6 weeks. Life got busy. 
I have a mobile app, a CLI tool, and a hardware project. Help me 
get back on track.

Output: A re-engagement analysis showing each project's state (last commit, open issues, completion percentage), a recommendation to focus on the CLI tool (smallest gap to completion), a 15-minute "warm-up task" for today to rebuild momentum, and a 4-week re-engagement plan.

Scenario 3: Should I Kill This Project?

Input:

I've been working on this budgeting app for 8 months and it's only 
30% done. There are now 5 similar apps on the market. Is it worth 
continuing?

Output: An objective evaluation covering sunk cost vs. remaining effort, market differentiation analysis, personal learning value assessment, and three options: (1) pivot to a niche the competitors miss, (2) scope down to an MVP and ship in 4 weeks, or (3) archive with dignity by documenting what you learned and extracting reusable code.

Best Practices

1. Limit active projects to three — Research on context switching shows that more than three concurrent projects leads to fragmented attention and none of them progressing meaningfully. Queue the rest.

2. Write session handoff notes — At the end of each work session, spend 5 minutes writing what you did and what to do next. This eliminates the "where was I?" friction that kills weekend project sessions.

3. Start sessions with a warmup task — The hardest part is starting. Begin each session with a tiny, concrete task (fix a typo, rename a variable, update a dependency) to build momentum before tackling the hard work.

4. Track progress in small increments — Do not wait for big milestones to log progress. Every commit, every paragraph, every wire soldered counts. The agent uses these micro-signals to maintain your motivation.

5. Schedule project time like appointments — Block specific hours on your calendar for side project work. Unscheduled free time almost never converts to productive project work due to decision fatigue.

Common Issues

Agent keeps recommending I drop a project I care about

The agent prioritizes based on completion likelihood and time investment. Override with priority: high and protect: true in the project config to signal emotional attachment. The agent will then optimize time allocation around keeping that project alive.

Progress detection not working with private repos

GitHub integration requires a personal access token with repo scope for private repositories. Add your token to the config under github_tracking.token. Alternatively, use manual progress updates via the check-in prompts.

Milestones feel too large and overwhelming

Adjust milestone_granularity from "standard" to "micro" to break milestones into tasks completable in a single session. The agent will create 1-2 hour chunks instead of multi-day milestones, which works better for sporadic schedules.

Privacy & Data Handling

All project data, progress logs, and scheduling information are stored locally in your project directory. GitHub integration uses read-only API calls to check commit history and issue status. Calendar integration uses the standard OAuth flow and only creates events — it does not read existing calendar entries. No project details, commit messages, or personal schedule information are transmitted to external analytics services. Notion sync writes to your specified database and does not access other workspace content. All configuration files containing tokens should be added to your .gitignore to prevent accidental exposure.