What it is

You pick a manual from the library, type the product name, or photograph the paper pages. Each step then plays as a short 3D animation. The part arrives as an orange hologram and settles into place, the screw turns into its hole, the dowel slides home. The step card under it says what to do, which hardware to use and what to watch out for.

You set the pace. Scrub to any moment of a step, rewind it, play it at half or double speed, or turn the model with a finger. X-ray makes the placed panels see-through, so you can see the dowels and shelf pins inside a joint. The parts drawer lists every piece with its size, so a tape measure settles which board is which. The paper-manual view shows the same step as a flat drawing, for when you want to compare it with the page in the box.

Hardware keeps the part numbers printed in the manual, so the bag in your hand matches the screen. On our demo bookcase that is 104322 for the 8 cam bolts, 118331 for the 8 cam locks and 101351 for the 14 dowels.

Steps play by themselves but never move on by themselves. Progress counts the steps you have worked past, weighted by how long each one takes, and looking back or ahead never changes it. A build ends only when you press Finish.

Who it is for

We built it for one person first: the one on the floor at 9 pm, on step 4 of 14, with one hand free and the phone propped against the box. That person decides every screen. It works one-handed, it reads at a glance, there is no sign-up before step 1, and there are no ads between steps.

It is also for the things you already own. A finished build goes into My Garage with its manual and its care schedule, next to the washer, the dishwasher and the PC you add by hand. The bookcase gets a reminder to re-tighten its joints 14 days after the build. The washer's drain filter comes up every 30 days.

Later, it is for brands. A QR code on page one of the paper manual can open the product in 3D. A brand pilot is $299 a month for up to three products.

Mog and Meg

The co-pilot is Mog, the beaver in orange smart glasses, or his twin sister Meg. You pick one when you start and can switch in Settings. Both talk in one or two short sentences, like this:

"Flip that board. Raw edge faces the back."Mog, on step 1 of the bookcase

Tap the face on the step card and you get typed help about the step you are on, free, with the camera off. Go Live and the co-pilot watches through the camera, checks each step against the manual, and speaks up before a mistake costs you an hour. How that works, and what it never does, is in the Live co-pilot post.

What is free

  • Every manual in the library, in 3D, with scrub, rewind, slow motion and X-ray.
  • 5 Live minutes once, plus 5 more for your first finished build and 5 for sharing a build.
  • One custom manual a month, built right away from your own scan, then one request a week, built overnight.

The free tier is supported by ads, on the library and the finish screen only. Never between steps.

What the Project Pass buys

The Project Pass is for one big build, with backup. It costs $5.99 once and gives you:

  • 35 Live co-pilot minutes,
  • 1 custom manual built right away, for a product the library does not have yet,
  • no ads for 30 days.

The minutes and the manual never expire. If the build runs long, a Top-up adds 10 minutes for $2.99. If you build or fix something every month, Pro is $9.99 a month: 120 Live minutes a month, 20 custom manuals a month built right away, My Garage with maintenance reminders, and no ads. Pro minutes reset each month. Minutes you buy stay until you use them.

Live minutes count only while the camera is on. Watching the 3D manuals never uses them.

Where it stands on 23 October 2026

The app's library has 44 manuals. Of these, 38 are popular products made from their makers' own instructions, each linked to the PDF it came from. The other six are our demo builds, each also a page you can read: a classic bookcase (12 steps, about 35 minutes), a standing desk (10 steps, 45 minutes, two people), a mid-tower PC (12 steps, an hour), a pre-lit Christmas tree (10 steps, 45 minutes), and two repairs, a phone battery swap and a laptop memory upgrade. All six pass our blueprint checker with no warnings.

The app runs in the browser with nothing to install. Today it runs in demo mode: the co-pilot reads the manual instead of your camera, and payments are simulated. Sign-in, scanning your own manual and the camera sessions switch on when the cloud side launches. The iPhone and Android apps come after, built from the same blueprint files.