Burrito’s Labs Indie Tech Outmost Studio
Personal Instruments
Near launch
StickSpace app icon showing a yellow handwritten sticky note above pink, blue, and green notes on cork.

StickSpace

Handwritten notes you can move, structure, connect, and find again on iPad.

Category
Personal Instruments
Platform
iPadOS 18+
Status
Near launch

Capture ideas in ink. Organize them without flattening them.

Write with Apple Pencil. Move with touch. Use Areas, Groups, Viewpoints, Portals, and local search to turn loose Notes into a navigable workspace.

User value

Handwriting that stays useful.

Capture quickly. Organize visually. Return to the right context.

01

Capture naturally

Write directly on Notes with Apple Pencil. Use touch to move Notes and navigate.

02

Structure when ready

Keep Notes loose, group them by position, or preserve a fixed relationship.

03

Find ideas again

Search recognized handwriting locally and return to the matching place on the Board.

A StickSpace Board with handwritten Notes arranged into a branching story map using Areas and Groups.View full size
A story Board with loose Notes, spatial Areas, and fixed Groups.

Features

Core features.

Six tools turn handwriting into a durable workspace.

  1. 01

    Pencil and touch

    Write with Apple Pencil. Move and navigate with touch.

  2. 02

    Persistent Boards

    Create separate workspaces. Move or copy Notes between them.

  3. 03

    Areas and Groups

    Use Areas for spatial membership and Groups for fixed relationships.

  4. 04

    Viewpoints and Portals

    Save useful views and connect related Boards visibly.

  5. 05

    Local search

    Find recognized handwriting and named structures across Boards.

  6. 06

    Local recovery

    Work offline with atomic saves, backup recovery, and Recently Deleted Boards.

Workflow

From loose Notes to usable structure.

Start messy. Add only the structure that helps.

A StickSpace Board with handwritten Notes spread loosely before organization.View full size
BeforeQuestions and ideas remain loose.
The same StickSpace Board organized with Areas and Groups while some Notes remain loose.View full size
AfterUseful relationships become visible.

In practice

Structure, navigation, and retrieval.

A StickSpace Board comparing a dynamic Area with a fixed Group.View full size

Area or Group

Position controls an Area. Intention controls a Group.

A StickSpace Board with an on-canvas Portal linking to another Board.View full size

Connected Boards

A Portal keeps the next Board visible and one action away.

StickSpace showing an all-Board search result highlighted on its spatial Board.View full size

Search in context

A result returns to its Board and spatial location.

Product demos

See it in motion.

Complete workflow

28 sec

Build structure

10 sec

Area versus Group

14 sec

Viewpoint and Portal

11 sec

Product concept

Structure follows thought.

The canvas distinguishes three kinds of relationship.

01

Lasso is temporary

Select Notes for the next action.

02

Area is spatial

Membership changes when a Note crosses the boundary.

03

Group is intentional

Membership stays fixed until the user changes it.

Architecture

Local state is the authority.

One validated workspace session owns live state. Storage and recognition remain on the iPad.

  1. 01Pencil and touch input
  2. 02SwiftUI spatial canvas
  3. 03Named workspace mutation
  4. 04Domain validation
  5. 05Atomic local store
  6. 06Vision recognition and search

Local by default

Core workflows stay available offline.

Validated mutations

State is checked before it becomes visible or persistent.

Deterministic retrieval

Vision recognizes text locally. Search returns spatial targets.

Technology

Built deliberately.

Application

  • Swift
  • SwiftUI
  • PencilKit

Recognition

  • Vision
  • Literal search
  • Local index

Persistence

  • Versioned JSON
  • Atomic writes
  • Backup recovery

Validation

  • XCTest
  • OSLog
  • Scenario Lab
  • Shell

Development

Close to launch.

StickSpace 1.0 is a release candidate. Physical-device and distribution checks remain.

Version
1.0 build 1
Recorded test plan
1,034 passing
Platform
iPadOS 18+
Connectivity
Offline core

Implemented

  • Handwritten PencilKit Notes on persistent pan-and-zoom Boards
  • Temporary Lasso, dynamic Areas, and fixed Groups
  • Saved Viewpoints, Board Portals, and spatial navigation
  • On-device recognition and literal cross-Board search
  • Versioned local persistence, migration, backup recovery, and bounded Undo
  • Onboarding, local-data disclosure, reset controls, diagnostics, and automated validation

Next release work

Complete iPad, Apple Pencil, handwriting, accessibility, signing, and store qualification.

StickSpace lab notes

The project, over time.

Notes about the thinking, architecture, development, and decisions behind this work.

  1. StickSpace
    21 Aug 2026 · Draft

    Preparing Local State for Optional Sync

    Infrastructure research can prepare for continuity without changing the current product promise that ordinary use remains local-only.
  2. StickSpace
    20 Aug 2026 · Draft

    Testing Realistic Thinking Workflows

    Deterministic scenario worlds made whole thinking workflows reviewable without pretending they were evidence of external adoption.
  3. StickSpace
    14 Aug 2026 · Draft

    Search Returns to Spatial Context

    Retrieval should bring a person back to the place where a thought sits among other thoughts.
  4. StickSpace
    10 May 2026 · Draft

    Three Kinds of Structure

    Temporary selection, spatial membership, and deliberate relationships may look similar on a canvas, but they should not behave the same way.
  5. StickSpace
    30 Apr 2026 · Draft

    Handwriting Becomes the Interface

    The first product decision made a handwritten Note both the content and the durable object around which the workspace would grow.