About

Kitchen Timer is a tiny cooking companion that keeps me calm at the stove. I wanted a way to keep step timings honest while still enjoying the cooking moment—the same spirit Simon Willison captured when he wrote about cooking with Claude. Instead of juggling mental timers or scrolling through recipe pages, I wanted a focused flow that stays with me from prep to plating.

Motivations

• Reduce mental overhead while cooking: timers, durations, and next steps stay visible without bouncing around tabs.
• Give friends and family confidence to cook together, even if I'm not in the room.
• Experiment faster by keeping steps structured so I can compare results and iterate.

Design Principles

• Readable at a glance. Industrial monospace typography and high contrast make states and numbers clear from across the kitchen.
• Action-first UI. The current timer, next step, and ingredients are all in one vertical rhythm for mobile cooking.
• Honest timing. All timings come from structured recipe data so the countdowns stay repeatable.

How It Was Built

The data processing was half done through vibe coding with Claude, using its CLAUDE SKILLs to rapidly edit images and create content. It was a super fun way to experiment with ideas and bring them to life quickly. Check out the recipe image processor skill that extracts structured recipe data from photos using GPT vision.

What's Next

I'm exploring parallel step guidance, richer finish criteria, and more recipes tuned for this format. If you have ideas, reach out via the links in the footer.