We are agnostic on which LLM does the parsing because the rules and structure built around it is the real magic.

Out of curiosity, how do you currently save ideas you get from Reels?

The extraction setup was actually the easy part. The magic in the tool is from the deterministic rules I put in place over months of iteration using it myself.

Inconsistent date formats, multi-lingual reservations, logic around when a new trip starts and your previous trip ends, parsing both an expense and a confirmation from the same email, duplication rules for when someone accidentally adds the same booking but from a different source, etc. These were all causes of actual parsing errors found from people testing it out.

I built 68 modules within the tool itself from testing.

The logic of the output will only improve over time with more usage. Building the right logic and ruleset into every conceivable scenario is the end goal.

Sonnet 4.5 does the extraction with numerous logic variations built in from trial and error, on many different file types. I am challenging all to try and stump it (PDF, .eml, .csv, .tsv, JPG, .ics).

Most of this was poorly organized (manually) in my phone's Notes app, with references to specific emails for more information.

I arrived on the first day in Bilbao, and the hotel didn't have me in their system by name, so I spent a good 10 minutes frantically scouring my emails for the confirmation number, cursing myself for holding up the people behind me.

Over the course of the next few days, while I was relaxing at my hotel (after finally getting in) in between pre-planned stops, I started building a personal tool that would organize all of my bookings automatically and keep all relevant information at my fingertips.

Thus, Petrel was born and named after one of my favorite birds.

It started as a personal pet project but I shared it with some friends that were looking for something just like it so I ended up turning it into an app and website for all to benefit. It's completely free to try without even signing up.

On my next group trip, I built out logical collaboration features to allow groups to vote, split expenses, share notes, and add pictures all within the same ecosystem.

I've slowly improved the parsing and itinerary logic and built in convenient features such as weather, estimated travel times, an encryption-protected area to store copies of personal information, and a comprehensive travel log with fun stats. I also made it so that the parsing tool can accept almost any file type. However, the tool doesn't do anything to assist on the planning side and doesn't provide true flight alert pushes, despite having live flight status syncing.

I would love for more people to test it out, challenge the parser, and let me know their thoughts and experience.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689049

Points: 17

# Comments: 9

Fractional service works for functions that are judgment-dense and cadence-light. You pay for expertise and experience. It's essentially an advisor more than an employee. For building an app, you should hire a contractor or agency with a defined deliverable.

I'm going through the same thing with my product launched last week. I'm going through the sequence of posting on reddit, HN, PH, etc. to build that first base to develop organically but it's a struggle.