Penalties

Configure consequences that activate when you fail a commitment.

Penalties

The PenaltiesScreen (penalties.tsx) lets users attach a real consequence to their commitment. If they fail to verify during their active slot, the selected penalty triggers automatically via the Convex cloud backend.

Penalties are optional — a commitment can exist without any penalty.

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Penalty Types

1. Money Penalty 💰

Lose a fixed monetary amount when you miss a commitment. The amount is configured on a sub-screen.

draft.penalty?.type === "money"

2. Embarrassing Photo 📸

A pre-selected cringe or embarrassing photo is automatically emailed to a contact you choose (e.g., [e-mail]). The email is dispatched by the Convex cloud backend using server-side functions — it cannot be intercepted or cancelled by the client.

draft.penalty?.type === "embarrassing_photo"

3. Cringe Message 💬

A shameful text message is sent to a contact of your choosing. The message content is pre-configured during commitment creation.

draft.penalty?.type === "cringe_message"

4. Block Favourite App 📵

Your most-used application gets temporarily blocked as punishment. The blocking duration is configurable.

draft.penalty?.type === "block_app"

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How Penalties Trigger

Penalties are not enforced on the client — they are durable cloud functions on the Convex backend. When a commitment verification window closes with a FAILED status:

1. The backend scheduled function detects the failure
2. The penalty payload is read from the task document
3. The appropriate action fires (email dispatch, app block injection, etc.)
4. The client cannot prevent or undo the penalty execution

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Example

Gym commitment with penalty:

• Penalty: Embarrassing Photo
• Recipient: [e-mail]
• Photo: Pre-selected from camera roll during setup
• If you miss your 6:00 AM gym check-in, the photo is emailed automatically