08·Product·Passion project
House Call
Multi-tradition natal reading practice (formerly Threadwork). Hand-prepared readings that synthesise Western (Vronsky), Chinese BaZi, and Vedic Jyotish. Per-user accounts, daily transit forecasts (astronomy-engine), falsifiable prediction tracker, synastry, tarot import. Invitation-only.
What it took
The skills behind this project.
Every project below leans on a primary discipline and a handful of secondary ones. Tap any chip to see how that skill plays out across the wider portfolio.
Skills demonstrated
- Product StrategyPrimary
Synthesised three-tradition reading practice with falsifiable prediction tracking; invite-only by design.
- Frontend EngineeringSecondary
Next.js app with per-user auth, daily transit forecasts, synastry, and tarot import surfaces.
- Backend EngineeringSecondary
Turso libSQL on Prisma, jose-signed JWTs, astronomy-engine transit cron, Vercel-fronted deployment.
- Web DesignSecondary
Midnight + gold editorial identity with a gold orbital glyph that anchors the landing.
Context
Why it exists.
Most natal-chart software treats traditions as separate islands — pick Western or Vedic or BaZi, get a reading inside that island, never cross. Practitioners who synthesise across traditions in their actual practice have nowhere to host that synthesis as a product.
House Call (formerly Threadwork) is that host. Hand-prepared readings that braid Western (Vronsky lineage), Chinese BaZi, and Vedic Jyotish into one document, with the supporting infrastructure underneath: per-user accounts, daily transit forecasts computed against the user's chart, a falsifiable prediction tracker that closes the loop on whether the reading held up, synastry, and tarot import.
Invitation-only on purpose. The practice scales by depth, not by sign-up volume.
StackNext.js · Prisma · Turso · JWT · astronomy-engine · Vercel
Process
The decisions that shaped it.
- 01
Three traditions, one synthesis layer
Each tradition has its own ontology — houses, palaces, pillars — and a Western synthesis on top of all three is the wrong move (it flattens what makes each tradition useful). Built a synthesis layer that holds the readings in parallel, lets the reader weave between them in prose, and never collapses them into a single chart. The user reads three voices, not one diluted voice.
Product Strategy - 02
Daily transits as a separate cron
Transit forecasts run against the user's natal chart every twenty-four hours using `astronomy-engine` — not at request time, because the calculation is expensive and the result is identical for every viewer of that user's day. Caching by user-day collapses the per-request cost to a database lookup and lets the forecast feed surface instantly when the user opens the app.
Backend Engineering - 03
Falsifiable predictions, logged
Predictions in the reading get tagged with a time window and an outcome category. When the window passes, the user marks the prediction hit, missed, or partial. The tracker holds the prediction reader accountable to their own forecasts — which is both the trust mechanic and the dataset that improves the next reading.
Product Strategy - 04
Per-user auth + Turso libSQL
Per-user auth was a non-negotiable from the start — readings are intimate, and you cannot share them on a shared session. Built on Next.js with jose-signed JWTs against Turso libSQL via Prisma; the database edge-replicates so transit calculations near the user stay fast. House Call's own migrations run through a custom script because the Prisma CLI does not speak Turso.
Backend Engineering - 05
Midnight + gold identity
House Call's visual language is a midnight ground with a single gold orbital glyph — readable as a logo, expandable into the chart aesthetic, distinct from the cobalt-blue planetary palette every other astrology product uses. The brand identity is the practice identity; the site looks like the readings feel.
Web Design
Outcome
What shipped.
LiveLive in private beta at housecallastro.com.
Live in private beta at housecallastro.com since 2026-05 (rebranded from Threadwork). Per-user accounts, daily transit feeds, prediction tracker, synastry, and tarot import all in production. Invitation list grows by referral; no public sign-up, by design.