Can AI Be My Project Manager? A Local-First Idea with n8n + Postgres

Lately, I’ve been thinking about using AI as my personal project manager — not in the corporate “meetings and reports” sense, but more like a quiet assistant that helps me stay on track while I build things solo.

The twist? I want to keep it local. No cloud dashboards, no SaaS clutter. Just me, my machine, and a few tools I already like: n8n and Postgres.

Why Even Do This?

When you’re a solo dev, it’s really easy to:

• Drift from your original plan
• Work on the fun stuff instead of the important stuff
• Forget what you were doing last week

I don’t really want a full-blown PM tool. I just want something that:

• Helps me reflect each day
• Suggests what to work on next
• Keeps a history of what I’ve done
• Feels like a teammate, but quiet and useful

The (Imaginary) Setup

This is just a thought experiment for now, but here’s how I imagine it working:

Everything happens locally except for the AI call, which could use OpenAI or Claude — or something self-hosted in the future.

A Day in the Life (Maybe)

Here’s how I’d interact with this setup:

1. Morning Check-In

   • I tell it how I’m feeling and how much time I have.
   • It stores this in Postgres as a daily log.

2. AI Suggests Tasks

   • Based on my task list and mood, it says:

     “You’ve got 90 mins. Maybe finish that login flow cleanup?”

   • It shows reasoning too, like a mini standup buddy.

3. Task Updates

   • I check off tasks, update priorities, or add new ones.
   • All saved locally in Postgres.

4. Weekly Recap

   • It pulls a summary of what I did and maybe suggests the next focus area.

What Would Be Stored?

Simple tables in Postgres:

• tasks: title, status, priority
• checkins: mood, focus, time available
• recommendations: AI-generated suggestions with context

Why Not Use Notion or Trello?

Honestly? I just want fewer tabs and more control. I already use n8n for automation, and Postgres is solid. With this setup, I could query my own data, automate things, and maybe even version control it.

Plus, building it sounds fun.

Still Just an Idea

Nothing’s built yet. I’m still figuring out:

• What workflows make sense
• How often I’d actually use it
• Whether I want a CLI, a local web UI, or just n8n triggers

But the idea keeps coming back, so I might take a weekend to prototype something soon.

What Do You Think?

If you’re also building solo or thinking about using AI for something beyond just writing code, I’d love to hear what you’d want from a setup like this.

Would you trust AI to suggest your next task? Do you already use something like this?

Let’s chat.