The Open Source Bar Program · Live demo — field-tested at Your Bar 1
First-Time Setup
The Open Source Bar Program
Inventory setup · Caterpillar walkthrough

Welcome — let's map your bar

We’re glad you’re here. Everything you just installed now lives right here in Chrome — this is your home base. We coach you through two passes the first time; after that, this is the dashboard you come back to every cycle.

How setup works — two passes

Pass 1

Walk & map

Build your approved bottle map — names, stations, sizes. No levels yet. We stay humble when speech is messy; you fix what we got wrong.

Pass 2

Count & reconcile

Count levels against that map. If everything lines up, we lock your baseline. If not, we hand you a line-by-line comparison and invite you to fix and re-upload.

Every input is a proposal. Reconciliation is the conversation until map and count agree.

Better voice notes = less cleanup later

Built-in phone dictation (iPhone Notes, Android keyboard) works, but it garbles brand names, bottle sizes, and fast bar-room speech — especially on a ladder with music in the background.

Wispr Flow (iPhone/Mac) is built for this: hold a button, talk naturally, export clean text. Strong alternatives: VoiceInk (Mac, open source), Whisperboard or TypeWhisper (iPhone, on-device). Any of these beat raw phone mic for a full back-bar walk.

No special app required — but if your first upload looks rough, try one of the above before your next bar.

This program runs on your machine — no AI required

Everything you installed is self-contained. Voice walks, counts, reconciliation, spreadsheets, PAR levels, and weekly Process all run locally on this laptop. Upload your notes, fix what we got wrong, and lock your inventory — no subscription, no cloud, no API key needed.

Optional add-on

AI connection — only if you want it

The core system does not use AI. Connect a key only if you want help reading invoice photos from your phone (Southern Glazer’s, Breakthru, etc.) instead of typing line items yourself. Coming soon: wine-cooler video walks parsed from your phone.

You do not need a paid AI subscription for the program itself. Many providers (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, and others) include API access with plans you may already have — we’re a working project and will add more free-friendly options as they emerge. Optional email updates coming for weekly release notes.

  • Without AI: paste invoice text, type numbers in spreadsheets, voice-walk and count as usual
  • With AI: snap a photo of a paper invoice → line items land in All inputs
  • Later: add or remove your key anytime under Settings → Optional AI

What is an API key?