Birthdays & Occasions

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Occasion scan runs mondays · 8am and keeps the Coming Up dashboard fresh. Mondays — rolls the dates forward, reads your calendar for annual events you haven't named, redraws the countdown, and says so at least two weeks out.
• What is captured lands in the Occasions record, which lives at Data/Occasions in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Gift ideas record, which lives at Data/Gift Ideas in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Coming Up dashboard reads from the record and shows, at a glance: next 30 days · on the register · the year · what kind · spent so far · spent, by person · the register · gift ideas bank · every occasion · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Occasion capture writes to Occasions · Occasion scan writes to Occasions · Occasion capture writes to Gift ideas · Gift shortlist writes to Gift ideas · Occasions shown by Coming Up · Gift ideas shown by Coming Up · Coming Up kept fresh by Occasion scan · Occasion scan run by Clover · Clover holds Occasion capture · Clover holds Gift shortlist.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Put every date you can think of on the register the day you install — the name you'd use for it, whose it is, the day, and how much warning you want. The calendar, the count and the register fill from that first sitting; Next 30 days waits for the Monday scan, so run it from your Routines screen if you'd like the countdown drawn today.
• Drop a gift idea the moment it occurs to you — "Sam would love those running socks", "Maya said she wanted a plant for the new flat" — and Occasion capture files it in the bank against the person. That is what turns March into the reminder that arrives in September with something to hand.
• Read the Monday card, not the board, for what needs doing: it lands at least your lead time ahead with the date, the budget and every idea waiting for that person, and what you gave last time so it isn't repeated. If a card keeps arriving too late for the post, change the lead days by saying so.
• Before you buy, ask Clover "what should I get Priya?" and Gift shortlist reads your own bank back — the ones inside the budget first, anything already bought and waiting, and what you gave last time so it isn't repeated. Say "bought the mug, $22" and the row moves on with the cost; Spent so far and Spent, by person only ever add up what you said you paid.
• Let the scan read your calendar rather than retyping it: an annual event there for someone on your People book goes on the register by itself; anyone not on the book is offered by name on the card, never added. Nothing is ever written back to the calendar unless you ask for a date to be put in.
• When a date you no longer keep comes round, say so and it is set aside, never deleted; tell Clover how far ahead you like to be told and it becomes the default for every new date. That is the correction that keeps the board yours.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, records and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• How much warning you want, per date or as a default — "give me a month for Sam", "two weeks is fine for everyone else".
• A budget per occasion, or none at all — a blank is never chased.
• When the Occasion scan runs, or pausing it and keeping the register by hand.
• Whether a date should ever go in your calendar — it is added only when you ask, and you can say never.
• Who and what never belongs on the register, as a standing preference the scan respects when it reads the calendar.
• The register and the bank are yours to edit: a date set aside brought back, an idea's estimate corrected, what something really cost.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Installing ends with "Meet Clover" and a short conversation, not a form. If Keep in Touch is installed, Clover offers the people already on your People book — a tap-to-answer panel of names, the most recently in touch first — and asks which have a date you'd like kept, so nobody is asked for twice; with no book yet, it simply asks who comes to mind first. Then each occasion in turn: what it is, the day, how much warning you want (fourteen days unless you say), a budget if you like, and the year it began if you know it. Each goes on the register as you say it, and a person not yet on the book goes on it first.
2. Nothing in that conversation asks for your calendar. Near the end Clover says once that the Monday scan reads your calendar for annual events you haven't named and asks for that access at its first run — and that you can run it straight away from the Routines screen if you want the countdown drawn today. The calendar, the count and the register are already drawn from what you said.
3. Stop whenever you like: the dates you can think of are a complete first sitting. If you leave before naming any, the Kit's page, its board and a fresh chat with Clover keep the doorway open until the first occasion is on the register — and the scan stands down and leaves one card inviting you back rather than running over an empty register.
4. After that the scan runs every Monday at eight: it moves any date that has passed forward a year, reads your calendar for annual events and adds the ones for people on your book, redraws Next 30 days, and leaves at most one card a week — the occasions now inside their lead time with the budget and the ideas in the bank, and at most three calendar dates you might want kept — or nothing, when nothing is coming. It reads your calendar and never writes to it.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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