Thursday: A SerenityOS for Myself

Thursday is a project exploring how AI and online feedback can make software development enjoyable again. After the author’s job disappeared because of funding problems, they realized how much their identity depended on coding and how little pleasure they had found in it lately. Building a complex DeepSeek Harness distribution - with a ticket board and other features - cost hundreds of dollars in AI credits and grew to 30,000 lines, but still felt like a chore. The breakthrough came from recognizing that the real reward was not finishing code or earning money, but quickly building something and seeing it work. The author wanted an AI agent that followed instructions reliably, while leaving software design and judgment to the developer. Thursday’s first version became a coding-agent skill file, and using it made coding fun again while keeping inference costs below $20 a month with DeepSeek v4 Flash and GLM 5.3.

The project takes inspiration from Andreas Kling, who began SerenityOS as a personal effort to build a toy operating system and improve his life; the project later grew into a serious system and helped inspire the Ladybird browser. Thursday is similarly presented as a personal bet: a practical experiment in restoring the joy of building, not simply another large software product. Its early goal is to learn how developers think and work, then use AI to shorten the distance between making software and seeing how people respond. The author also hopes the project can encourage responsible AI use and challenge incentives that make software work less satisfying. Readers are invited to try the skill and send feedback.