Stillcraft / Apps / Vigil
An app for vows of abstinence and practice: no sugar, a cold shower, mornings without a phone. Pick one of seventy or write your own, choose how long, when it begins and how strict it is, record your reason in your own voice, then seal it by holding the wax. Every day kept is a bead on your prayer rope and a leaf on the vine around the page. Breaking it is allowed, but first you climb down a ladder you built yourself. Free, no ads, no account, no network.
Android 8.0+ · Free · No internet permission · English & Русский
Abstain, a daily practice ticked off each day, a measure (one cup a day) or hours (no phone from 22:00 to 7:00). 3, 7, 21, 40, 49 or 108 days, your own, or no end. Begin now, at dawn tomorrow, after the last supper, or on a chosen day.
Before a vow can be broken: a candle of waiting, your own voice, a letter, three questions, a ransom that buys it back, a message to a witness, a tithe that becomes a debt, and sleeping on it till morning. At any step you can still hold.
A novice is forgiven one lapse in ten days; penance makes the vow longer; a crack stays on the seal for good; a burned scroll goes to the chronicle unfinished. A hermit's vow can only burn, and begin again.
The candle in the middle of the bar opens the night: ten minutes of a candle whose flame swells as you breathe in for four and out for six, with your reason and your voice beside it. Note how strong it is and what set it off. Every temptation held is a gold bead on the rope.
In the evening, one tap: kept, hard, or broken. In the morning, today's vows with a warning on the hard days. Sober October, Dry January, Lent (Orthodox or Western, computed), the Nativity Fast and No-spend November are offered two weeks ahead, and a kept vow suggests its next step.
A reliquary of the seals of kept vows, a map of temptations by weekday and hour with their triggers, letters, tithes to settle, the book of hours, and a testament to yourself unsealed only on the day a vow is kept. A candle widget for the home screen.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| The candle of waiting | A candle burns down, 5 to 120 minutes, before you can go on |
| Your voice | Your recorded reason, played to the end |
| A letter | Write why you're breaking it, at least so many letters; it stays in the chronicle |
| Three questions | How will you feel in an hour? What is this really about? What would you tell a friend? |
| Ransom | An act that buys the vow back: 30 squats, a walk outside |
| A witness | A ready message to someone you chose, by SMS or any messenger |
| A tithe | What you pledged becomes a debt in the chronicle |
| Sleep on it | Breaking is allowed only tomorrow, from an hour chosen in advance |
On Xiaomi (MIUI / HyperOS), Huawei, Samsung and some other phones, allow Autostart for Vigil and remove battery limits so the morning rule and the evening examen arrive on time.
JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. The seals, candles and beads are drawn in Kotlin, nothing else to install.
git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/vigil.git cd vigil ./gradlew testDebugUnitTest # unit tests ./gradlew assembleDebug # app.vigil.dev, installs next to a release ./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo # app.vigil.demo with a summer of vows ./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender # the screens, as PNGs
Of course. Vigil is not a lock; it's a rule you set yourself and a pause before you break it. Most cravings last minutes, and the ladder is built to outlast them.
It borrows the words and the look of a monastery: vows, the examen, a book of hours. The fasts are there for those who keep them, but most vows are as everyday as no sugar or no social media.
In the app's own storage on the phone. Vigil has no internet permission at all.
There's no backup in this first version yet: vows stay on the phone they were sealed on. Backup is next on the list.
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Found a bug, missing a feature, or want it in your language? Tell us on GitHub.
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