HabitStake — the spec

HabitStake is a consumer dashboard for building habits through personal challenges, each tied to a reward the user defines upfront. Everyday people create a challenge, pick their reward, log daily progress, and stay accountable by inviting friends. The reward at the end is the motivational anchor; the streak and social layer keep users honest between day one and completion.

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Decisions locked

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The core loop

1. User signs up and creates a challenge — names it, sets a duration, and declares the reward they will claim at the end.
2. User optionally picks a habit template to pre-fill the challenge structure instead of starting blank.
3. User invites one or more friends as accountability partners, who receive an email or SMS invite.
4. Each day, the user opens the dashboard and taps the daily check-in button, incrementing their streak counter.
5. The progress visualization updates in real time, showing how far through the challenge they are.
6. Friends can see the user's streak and progress, creating social pressure to return tomorrow.

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v1 scope

Daily check-in button with streak counter
A single prominent action on the dashboard — one tap marks the day complete. A streak counter increments with each consecutive day checked in and resets to zero on a missed day. Lives on the main dashboard view.

Progress visualization per challenge
A per-challenge progress bar or chart showing days completed vs. days remaining, alongside the reward label as a constant reminder. Lives on the challenge detail screen.

Habit templates for quick setup
A library of pre-built challenge structures (e.g., "30-day exercise," "read 20 minutes daily") that auto-populate the new-challenge form. Reduces setup friction to under one minute. Lives on the new-challenge creation flow.

Friend sharing and accountability invites
The challenge owner can enter friend email addresses or phone numbers to send an invite via email or SMS. Invited friends get a read-only view of the owner's streak and progress. Lives on the challenge detail screen and a lightweight shared-progress view for invitees.

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Deliberately later

• Custom start/end dates — v1 uses a fixed-duration model; date-range flexibility belongs in v2 once users demonstrate they want multi-phase planning.
• Reward redemption claim at completion — a formal claim flow adds complexity; confirming the loop works first validates whether redemption needs a built-in mechanism.
• Reward library with suggested ideas — useful upsell surface, but free-text reward entry is sufficient to prove the core motivation model.
• Streak freeze or skip day option — forgiving streaks changes the product's commitment psychology in a meaningful way; introduce only after measuring how often streak resets cause churn.

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Data model sketch

• users — id, name, email, phone, created_at, notification_preference
• challenges — id, user_id, title, reward_label, duration_days, start_date, status (active/completed/abandoned)
• challenge_templates — id, title, description, default_duration_days, category
• check_ins — id, challenge_id, user_id, checked_in_date, streak_at_checkin
• streaks — id, challenge_id, current_streak, longest_streak, last_check_in_date
• accountability_invites — id, challenge_id, inviter_user_id, invitee_contact (email or phone), status (pending/accepted), sent_at
• notifications — id, user_id, channel (email/SMS), type, sent_at, payload

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Screens

• Dashboard — shows all active challenges, each with a check-in button and current streak; the user's home base.
• New challenge flow — step-by-step form: name, duration, reward, optional template selection.
• Template picker — browsable list of habit templates that pre-fill the new challenge form.
• Challenge detail — progress visualization, reward label, streak history, and the accountability invite panel.
• Shared progress view — read-only screen accessible to invited friends showing streak and progress bar, no login required.
• Account / settings — notification preferences, email or phone management, and challenge history.

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How to use this document

• Bring this spec into Mind Palace, where the guided platform and its AI coach pick up from exactly this document and build the product with you step by step.
• Hand it to a developer as the complete v1 brief — scope, data model, and screens are defined; no interpretation required.
• Keep it as the single source of truth while you build, using the "Deliberately later" section to deflect scope creep with a documented rationale.