How the technology works

One family, one day, on every screen in the house.

Doorpost is a web app. A parent's phone, a child's tablet and the tablet on the kitchen wall all read the same family record, so everyone sees the same day. Some features use AI. This page says plainly which ones, what they send, and what a parent controls.

Three screens

A phone, a child's device and the wall.

A parent's phone
The full app, in any browser. You can add it to your phone's home screen and open it like an app. Parents set everything up here.
The kitchen wall
Any tablet with a browser, left on where the family walks past. It shows today's verse, the schedule, chores and dinner, and refreshes itself about once a minute.
A child's own device
Off until a parent allows it for that child. Then the child sees only their own day: their lessons, chores and verse.
One record behind them
There is nothing to keep in step by hand. A chore ticked on the wall is the same chore on your phone.

Pairing a child’s device. A parent turns on “Allow own device” for that child, then asks for a six-digit code in their own signed-in app. The child types the code on their device. The code works once and lasts ten minutes. The device never sends a request to the parent, so there is nothing a stranger could put in front of you to approve. A parent can remove a device at any time.

Children do not have accounts or passwords, and they cannot sign up. More on that is on Safety.

The wall

A shared screen, not a personal feed.

The wall is the part of Doorpost a family sees most. It runs on whatever tablet you already have, in the browser. There is no Doorpost hardware to buy.

Each child taps their picture to see their own lessons and chores and tick them off. A child’s session on the wall ends after 15 minutes, and a parent PIN keeps the grown-up controls for grown-ups.

If the Wi-Fi drops. The wall keeps showing the last page it loaded, and its screensaver art keeps playing, until the connection comes back. A child’s private view is never saved for offline use. Saving a change needs a connection, on the wall and on your phone.

Tell Doorpost

Say it the way you would say it to your spouse.

If you homeschool, the end of a school day has a lot of small facts in it. With Tell Doorpost a parent types or says them in a sentence:

“Jack got an A on today’s math assignment, and Evan finished reading.”

Doorpost turns the sentence into cards, one for each record: a grade, a finished lesson, hours, attendance or a note. You can edit or remove any card. If something is unclear it asks a short question instead of guessing. Nothing is saved until you press Save all.

It is for parents and co-parents only.
Your children’s names are swapped for “Child 1”, “Child 2” before the sentence is sent, and put back in what you read. Ages and birthdays are not sent.
Because a grade is a child’s school record, it works only after a parent turns on “Let AI use the children’s details” in Settings.
Speaking uses your browser’s own speech recognition where it has one. Where it does not, and only if we have that option switched on, a short recording is sent to be turned into text and is not stored.
Grading by hand always works, with or without it.

Where AI is used

A helper for parents, used in a few named places.

AI features run only when we have AI switched on for Doorpost. While it is off, the AI buttons are hidden and nothing is sent. When it is on, these are the features that use it:

Tell Doorpost
A parent types or says a sentence about schoolwork and gets back records to check. Described above.
The Scripture coach
Name what you are feeling and it suggests three to five passages, a short note and a prayer. The AI gives references only; the verse words come from your translation.
The family assistant
A parent can ask a short question about the family's week. It answers briefly and is told to send medical, legal and counseling questions to a pastor or a professional.
The week ahead
On Sunday the family gets next week in one place. One short paragraph on top is written by AI from that list; a parent can turn the paragraph off.
Email or a flyer into an event
Forward a school email to your family's Doorpost address, or take a photo of a flyer, and Doorpost drafts the calendar event for you to check.
Sorting a calendar
When you subscribe to a shared calendar, you can ask AI to suggest whose events are whose. A parent confirms each suggestion.
Sermon summaries
Your sermon notes can be summarized for the family.
Lesson and recipe ideas
A parent can ask for lesson ideas for a topic and grade level, or for a recipe idea.

The provider. These features use Anthropic’s Claude models, reached through Vercel’s AI Gateway (or, in some configurations, directly from Anthropic). Quick jobs such as Tell Doorpost and the coach use a smaller, faster model; the assistant uses a larger one. Turning a recording into text uses an OpenAI model through the same gateway.

Limits. Every AI request is counted against a daily limit for your family. When the limit is reached, AI help rests until the next day and everything else in Doorpost keeps working. Sermon recordings have their own monthly limit.

Doorpost works without it. The verse, the prayer board, the calendar, chores, meals and school records do not depend on AI. There is not yet a single switch that turns every AI feature off for one family; today a parent controls what is shared with the switches described below, and most AI features run only when a parent asks for them.

Where it is not

Most of Doorpost has no AI in it at all.

Scripture
Verse text is never written by AI. The daily verse and memory verses come from the translation you chose.
The morning email
The daily briefing is built from your family's own calendar, chores, meals and shared prayer list. No AI is involved.
The schoolwork check
When "Parent checks schoolwork" is on, a parent checks the work. Nothing grades your child but you.
Grades and transcripts
Grades, report cards and transcripts are calculated from the lessons you mark.
Chores, rewards and the calendar
Chores, points, calendar sync and the wall are ordinary software. The calendar sync never calls AI.
A sitter's care sheet
Allergies, medicines, conditions and emergency contacts are never sent to the AI provider, whatever the switches say.

What is sent

Names replaced, two switches off, counts kept.

Children’s names are replaced. In Tell Doorpost, the assistant, meeting reflections, calendar sorting, forwarded emails, the week ahead and the Scripture coach, a child’s name becomes a placeholder such as “Child 1” before anything is sent, and the real name is put back in the answer you read.

Two switches, both off until a parent turns them on, in Settings → Privacy. One lets AI features use private prayer requests. The other, “Let AI use the children’s details”, covers ages and grades for calendar sorting, a child’s own words in the coach, photos of flyers, and Tell Doorpost. A child can start the Scripture coach only if a parent turns on a third switch as well.

Two things need neither switch, and we would rather say so than have you find out. A forwarded email is read to draft an event, with children’s names replaced first; if you do not want an email read this way, do not forward it. Lesson ideas send the topic you type and the grade level you choose.

What we keep. We log how many AI requests each family makes and what they cost, so we can keep the limits. We do not log what was asked or what was answered.

The full detail is in the privacy policy.

What's coming

Not built yet.

Planned, not available today

A voice assistant for the wall. We are designing a way to speak to the kitchen wall by saying “Hey Doorpost”: to add something to the list or ask what is next without touching the screen. It is not built, and we are not giving a date. When it exists, it will follow the same rules as everything above, and this page will say exactly how it works.

Keep reading

Ready to begin? Set up your family. Doorpost is invite-only while it is in beta.