DandyLine · Living Reference · Read at start of every session

Vault Master

Complete reference for all five vault types — design, language, use cases, settings, example stories, and build notes. Cross-referenced from all DandyLine source documents.

5 Vault Types Grove · Personal · Milestone · Legacy Journey (New — in build) Visual Reference + Gap Map Updated March 2026
Philosophy
Grove
Shared · Family · Friends
Personal
Private · Solo · Intimate
Milestone
Events · Birthdays · Life Moments
Legacy
Long-hold · Heirlooms · Deep Time
Journey New
Milestones · Community · Paths
Open Questions
Design decisions pending
Visual Reference
Screens · Gaps · Source files
Language Rules
The Vault Philosophy

A jar is not just a container. It's a commitment.

Every vault type is a different kind of vessel — shaped for different depths of memory, different circles of people, and different timescales of life. The jar you choose tells its own story before it's even opened.

The vault sits at the center of the DandyLine experience: it's where the moment becomes something more than a file. When you seal a vault, you're not just storing something. You're making a promise — to a future version of yourself, to someone you love, or to a stranger who one day walks the same path you're walking now.

From the brand ethos: "The memory preserved in soft light. Sealed, held, waiting in the dark. The puffball is still — patient — a perfect sphere of preserved potential. This is the vault: silent and luminous."

01
Plant
Captured with intention — transformed into a seed. Not just a file. A commitment. The moment is real, unfiltered, and honest.
02
Seal
Sealed in time — transformed by waiting. The seal is not passive. It is active preservation. The vault is silent and luminous.
03
Bloom
The moment of arrival — transformed by the distance traveled. The memory lands differently than it was planted. That distance is where meaning lives.

The core transformation: The person who opens a DandyLine vault is never the same person it was created for — whether that's a future version of yourself, or someone who didn't even exist when the seed was planted. That gap — that distance — is where the magic lives. DandyLine doesn't just preserve the past. It transforms what a moment means.

Five vaults — click to explore each
Grove
Shared — everyone plants, everyone blooms.
Family memory archive Friend group time capsule Wedding or milestone vault
See full details
Personal
Private — one seed, one promise to yourself.
Letter to future self Sealed voice memo Private milestone reflection
See full details
Milestone
Event-anchored — sealed for a life moment.
18th / 21st birthday letter Graduation or retirement gift Wedding day message
See full details
Legacy
Long-hold — for the memories built to outlast the moment.
Message to an unborn child Posthumous delivery 50-year family capsule
See full details
Journey New
Milestone-anchored — time measured in progress, not dates.
Sobriety Day 30 / Month 6 Grief or health recovery Community at your milestone
See full details
Vault Type 01
Grove
Shared multi-contributor vault — for family, for friends, for people who grow together.
A Grove lets multiple people plant seeds into the same vault. Everyone contributes. Everyone receives the bloom.
Gold Wide-mouth · Bulbous Multi-contributor Shared bloom
What makes Grove its own vault type
The only vault where multiple people co-plant into the same container.
Each contributor plants their own seeds independently. Individual seeds can have different bloom triggers — one opens on a birthday, another in 5 years, another on a wedding day. The vault holds all of them. The shared structure is the defining feature, not the trigger or the occasion.

Ask: "Are multiple different people each planting their own seeds?" If yes → Grove. If one person is planting alone → Personal, Milestone, or Legacy depending on other factors.
Bloom triggers (date, age, milestone, anniversary) and recipients are settings you configure inside the vault — they don't determine the vault type. A Grove vault can have a milestone trigger. A Milestone vault with multiple contributors is actually Grove + milestone trigger.
Description

The classic mason jar — wide-mouthed, warm, and built for gathering. A Grove vault is the communal garden. Multiple people plant seeds into the same container, each from their own perspective. Seeds can bloom all at once or on entirely different timelines — one contributor's seed arrives on a birthday, another's in five years, another's on a wedding morning.

For families, friend groups, couples, teams — any circle of people who want their individual voices to arrive, each in its own time.

Jar Design

Shape: Wide-mouth, bulbous at the bottom — widens noticeably toward the base. The wideness communicates gathering and community.

Color: Gold (#D4A853) — the primary brand color. Grove is the anchor vault. Warm, generous, communal.

Animation: Three seeds glowing inside the jar at staggered intervals, different gold opacities — representing multiple contributors.

Primary Use Cases
  • Whole family co-planting — grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts all contributing their own seeds independently. Every relationship in the jar, every perspective preserved. Seeds don't have to arrive together — Grandma's voice note blooms on a birthday, Mom's photo blooms in 10 years, Dad's video blooms on the wedding morning.
  • Couples planting together — both people contributing their own seeds to the same vault. What she noticed. What he was afraid to say out loud. Each can bloom on a different trigger — the same anniversary, or years apart.
  • Friend group time capsule — everyone in the group plants independently. Nobody knows exactly what the others added. It opens on a future date everyone agreed to — and rediscovery is part of the experience.
  • A child with two separated parents — each parent contributes their own seeds separately. The child receives the combined picture: two people who loved them, each in their own voice.
  • Communities, cohorts, teams — any group of people sharing a moment in time. A graduating class. A team disbanding. A community marking an ending or beginning together.
Bloom Triggers That Fit
Specific date Age milestone Years from now Anniversary trigger Surprise me Location unlock
Grove key distinction: All trigger types are available — and crucially, each seed inside the same vault can have its own bloom trigger. Grandma's voice note blooms on a birthday. Mom's photo blooms in 10 years. Dad's video blooms on the wedding morning. One vault, one family, completely different timelines. This is what separates Grove from every other vault type.
Settings to Design (Future Build)
ContributorsAdd by name, email, or invite link. Each contributor plants independently. All seeds held in the same vault.
Recipient(s)A single designated recipient / all contributors receive it / contributor-specific (each seed goes to whoever the planter addressed it to)
Contributor visibilityCan contributors see who else has planted? Options: see names only / see names + count / fully blind until bloom
Bloom triggerDate / milestone / countdown timer / all-planted trigger (blooms when everyone has contributed)
Contribution deadlineLock the vault on a set date even if not everyone has planted
Reminder cadenceNudge contributors who haven't planted yet (optional, gentle)
Bloom deliverySimultaneous (everyone opens at the same moment) or sequential (each contributor's seed blooms individually)
Story Example — Grove Vault · 4 contributors · 4 different bloom triggers
"What we kept"

Nobody told the others they were planting. They each just did it on their own.

Mom — Photo · "The kitchen at 7am" The twins had been up since 5 trying to make pancakes before anyone woke up. By the time Mom found them, the kitchen looked like a snowstorm. Flour on the dog. Milk on the ceiling. Two enormous grins. Caption: "They did this because they love you. Remember it when they drive you crazy." 🌸 Blooms on her 30th birthday — age milestone trigger

Dad — Video · 40 seconds, no one noticed Her dancing with him in the living room. Just socks on hardwood floor, both of them completely in their own world. Note: "Something I want you to remember: you were never embarrassed to dance with me. Not yet." 🌸 Blooms on her wedding morning — specific date (chosen when she announces her date)

Grandma — Voice note · Christmas Eve, after everyone was asleep She didn't say much. Just talked about what it looked like from across the room that evening. The way the light fell. The way nobody was performing. "I'm watching your whole life happen and I can't believe I get to be here for it." 🌸 Blooms in 10 years from today — years-from-now trigger

Older sister — Text note · Two sentences "You're so annoying and I would do anything for you." 🌸 Surprise trigger — DandyLine chooses the moment

Four contributors. Four different bloom triggers. One vault — she doesn't know it exists. None of them planned it together. None of it lands on the same day. All of it will find her exactly when it's supposed to.

Audience

Families, couples, close friend groups, wedding planning communities, new parent circles. Grove is the most emotionally accessible vault — the easiest to explain in one sentence to someone new to DandyLine.

High-value acquisition channel: every Grove recipient becomes a potential planter.

Revenue Notes

Grove vaults are the core of the Family Plan (~$120/year) — parents, grandparents, children all in one shared legacy timeline. Family plans show 40–60% higher retention than individual plans in comparable categories.

Wedding partnerships (The Knot, Zola, bridal publications) position Grove as "the wedding gift that outlasts the registry."

Visual Reference
dandyline-bloom-reveal-v3.html — Full 4-screen narrative dandyline-v5.html — App concept: Home/Timeline + Vault Bloom phones dandyline-v5.html — Vault card with jar SVG + expand settings
Screen 08: Lock screen bloom notification Screen 09: Vault opens (Stella's Life Capsule) Screen 10: Memory player — Grandma's voice note Screen 11: After-bloom state Home/Timeline phone mockup Vault Bloom phone mockup After-bloom "What next?" flow — screen 11 underdeveloped Multi-contributor planting experience (contributor POV)
Visual gap: Grove is the most visually developed vault. The bloom-reveal sequence (Stella, age 15) fully covers the recipient experience. What's missing is the planter perspective — specifically the moment a contributor adds their seed to a shared vault, and what it looks like to see other contributors' seeds accumulate. Screen 11 (after-bloom) is text-only and needs a richer "next actions" UI.
Vault Type 02
Personal
Private vault, single owner, flexible timing. Your own quiet garden.
The most common vault. It belongs entirely to you — a moment sealed until a date you choose, for whoever you decide deserves to receive it.
Sky Blue Tall · Slender Single owner Flexible delivery
What makes Personal its own vault type
A single planter. Private, solo, intimate.
Personal is defined by who plants — one person, alone. The recipient can be yourself, a partner, or a child. What makes it Personal isn't who receives it — it's that one person is making a solo promise. No co-contributors, no shared container.

The distinction from Milestone: Milestone is occasion-defined — the vault IS the event. Personal is message-defined — you're planting because you want to say something, and you're choosing when it arrives. The trigger is a setting, not the vault's identity.

The distinction from Legacy: Legacy is for the longest timescales and highest-stakes continuity — where the planter might not be present at bloom. Personal can use long triggers too, but doesn't carry the legal/generational infrastructure Legacy does.
A parent planting a solo message for their child's 18th birthday = Personal (one planter) with an age-milestone trigger. If both parents each plant their own message into the same vault → that becomes Grove.
Description

Tall and slender, like something you'd keep on a shelf. The Personal vault is private, intimate, and entirely yours. One owner plants into it; the bloom can be sent to yourself or to a chosen recipient.

This is where the most honest, unperformed memories live — the ones you wouldn't post, the ones you'd only share with one person, the ones that don't need an audience. The Personal vault is the anti-feed.

Jar Design

Shape: Tall and slender — like a medicine bottle or a narrow apothecary jar. Vertical, contained, private.

Color: Sky Blue (#8BAEC8) — distance, time, the horizon. The sky you plant into and the sky the memory blooms from.

Animation: Single seed glow inside, centered and still. Quiet. Solitary.

Primary Use Cases
  • Letter to your future self — sealed and delivered in 1, 5, or 10 years
  • IVF / fertility journal — voice notes and photos planted during treatment, set to bloom when a child reaches a milestone birthday. Note: if planted for yourself to revisit → Personal. If planted for your future child → consider Legacy (long-hold, potentially before they exist).
  • Pre-loss recording — a parent recording messages for milestones they fear they may not be present for. Note: if the timescale is long or posthumous delivery is the concern → Legacy is the stronger fit.
  • Personal journal capsule — capturing who you are right now, sealed until a future date
  • Trauma or growth milestone — a message to yourself for when you're ready to look back
  • Relationship vault — a private message to a partner set to open on a significant future date
  • Solo parent message to a child — one parent planting alone, set to bloom for a child on a meaningful milestone. Note: if both parents plant separately into the same vault → that's Grove.
Bloom Triggers That Fit
Specific date Age milestone Years from now Location unlock Surprise me Gradual bloom
Settings to Design (Future Build)
RecipientYourself / a specific person (email or in-app) / a person who doesn't have the app yet (email delivery)
Privacy levelJust me — invisible until bloom. Shared bloom — delivered to recipient only. Private with backup — trusted person holds a sealed key
Bloom triggerAll six trigger types available: date, age, years, location, gradual, or surprise
Media typesPhoto, video, voice note, written letter, or bundled combination
Feeling tagHopeful · Grateful · Proud · Tender · Bittersweet · Scared · Raw · Celebratory
Re-seal optionCan the planter add to the vault after sealing? Options: sealed forever / open window for additions / can add but not edit existing
Legacy deliveryIf planted for someone else and the planter is no longer available — trusted person activation or automated delivery
Story Example — Personal Vault
"A letter for the baby who wasn't born yet"
During their third round of IVF, Sarah recorded a voice memo she didn't know would ever be heard. She talked about what she and her husband had gone through, what they dreamed of, what they were afraid to say out loud. She set it to bloom on their child's 18th birthday. Four years later, she got pregnant. The seed is still sealed. Waiting. Fourteen more years to go. And when it opens — it will carry the full weight of a love that existed before their child did.
Visual Reference
dandyline-v5.html — Planting Flow phone (Step 1 of 5: media type selection) dandyline-v5.html — Vault card with tall slender jar SVG No dedicated screen flow for Personal vault exists
Planting flow: Step 1 — media type choice (photo/video, voice, story, bundle) Jar visual — tall, slender form factor in sky blue Steps 2–5 of planting flow (add content → set trigger → label it → seal) Solo bloom notification (no contributor group — just you, to future you) Solo vault open — the intimate, private reveal moment Letter-to-self experience — writing mode, sealed delivery
Biggest gap in the deck. Personal is the most common vault type but has almost no visual storytelling. The IVF story is emotionally powerful but lives only as text. There's no screen flow showing what it feels like to plant a personal seed alone, or to open one years later by yourself. Priority: build a "letter to future me" single-screen moment — the solo counterpart to the Stella bloom reveal.
Vault Type 03
Milestone
Built for the defining moments — the ones you know are coming.
Round, wide, and sturdy enough to hold the weight of what matters most. Milestone vaults are designed for life's big, known moments.
Sage Round · Wide Event-anchored Known future date
What makes Milestone its own vault type
The occasion is the vault's identity — not just the trigger.
Milestone vaults are occasion-defined. You're not choosing when to deliver a message and then picking a trigger — you're building the vault because a specific life event exists. The graduation, the 18th birthday, the wedding: the moment creates the vault. They are the same thing.

The distinction from Personal: Personal is message-defined — you have something to say and you're choosing when it arrives. Milestone is event-defined — the event is why the vault exists at all.

The distinction from Grove: If one person plants for one recipient = Milestone. If multiple people each plant their own seeds into the same occasion vault = that's actually Grove with a milestone trigger.
A mentor's graduation letter (one planter, one recipient, one event) = Milestone. A family all planting for the same graduation (multiple planters) = Grove. The contributor count is the deciding factor when occasion + contributors overlap.
Description

Round and wide like a canning jar — sturdy, dependable, built for the weight of big moments. Milestone vaults are for events you know are coming: graduations, birthdays with zeroes, retirements, weddings, the day someone leaves for college.

The difference between a Milestone vault and a Personal one: Milestone is event-anchored. You're not just choosing a date — you're choosing a moment in someone's life that has cultural and emotional weight. The vault and the moment are designed together.

Jar Design

Shape: Round and wide — like a ball jar or a short canning jar. Low center of gravity. Solid presence.

Color: Sage (#7A9E7E) — growth, nature, calm. The color of something that's been alive for a long time and is ready to be opened.

Animation: Single large seed glow, centered inside. Present and waiting.

Primary Use Cases
  • Birthday letter from a parent — one parent, planted years in advance, delivered exactly on the day. Not a collection from the whole family — just one voice, one promise. (Multiple family members planting = Grove)
  • Graduation message from a mentor — a teacher, coach, or boss planting something for the moment a student crosses the stage. One planter, one recipient, one milestone.
  • A partner's wedding morning note — written the night before, sealed, opened the morning of. The most intimate 24-hour vault.
  • First night at college — something from a parent, planted before move-in day. One message for one specific moment of leaving.
  • A letter to yourself at a future age — "open when you're 40," written at 32. You are both the planter and the recipient. The milestone is the trigger and the vault's whole reason for existing.
  • Retirement letter from a manager — one person writing to honor one person's career. (Whole team contributing = Grove)
Bloom Triggers That Fit
Specific date Age milestone Years from now Gradual bloom
Settings to Design (Future Build)
Event typeBirthday (with age) / graduation / wedding / anniversary / retirement / departure / custom
ContributorsSingle or multiple (if multi-contributor, becomes a hybrid Grove/Milestone)
Delivery methodIn-app notification / email delivery to non-app users / physical print option
Countdown displayOption to show recipient a countdown ("Your vault blooms in 47 days") — or keep sealed with no countdown
Grouped deliveryMultiple seeds delivered together at the milestone moment, or staggered over the bloom day
Repeat milestoneRe-seed automatically for recurring milestones (anniversary every year, birthday every year)
Story Example — Milestone Vault
"Five friends. One time capsule. Twenty years."
The summer after college, five friends planted a shared vault — photos, voice notes, written promises. Jokes only they'd understand. An inside look at who they were at 22. It's set to open on the first Saturday of 2044 — when they'll all be in their forties. Everyone has already forgotten what's in it. That's the point. When 2044 arrives, they'll remember not just what they recorded — but who they were when they recorded it.
Visual Reference
dandyline-v5.html — Vault card with round canning jar SVG in sage green No dedicated screen flow for Milestone vault exists
Jar visual — wide, round, canning jar form factor in sage green Birthday bloom notification screen Graduation day reveal experience Milestone vault setup — choosing the age/event trigger Multi-decade wait indicator — "Opens on your 18th birthday · 11 years away"
Note on story alignment: The "five friends" story in this section reads more like a Grove vault (multi-contributor, shared group experience) than a Milestone vault (defined by a life event for one person). Worth clarifying the distinction with a dedicated Milestone example — a parent planting a graduation letter, or a sibling writing to a future bride. Visual gap: Milestone has no bloom reveal sequence at all. Next build target after Personal.
Vault Type 04
Legacy
The long-hold vault — for memories that need years, decades, or a lifetime to arrive.
Legacy vaults are built for the longest timescales — 10, 20, 50 years or more. These are the vaults that outlive you.
Purple Hex-faceted Generational Decades-long Heirloom
What makes Legacy its own vault type
Built for the situations where ordinary vault infrastructure isn't enough.
Legacy isn't defined by how long the vault waits — it's defined by what's at stake if it doesn't arrive. Posthumous delivery. Legal/estate context. Generational reach. Subscription-independent continuity. These are the situations that require more than a trigger date.

The distinction from Personal: Personal can also have long triggers. But Legacy adds continuity guarantees — the vault persists beyond account cancellation, can transfer to an heir, can be verified at delivery. When the stakes are that the planter might be gone, Personal isn't enough.

The distinction from Milestone: Milestone is about an occasion. Legacy is about survival across time. A message for a grandchild's 18th = could be Personal or Milestone. A message for a grandchild's 18th, where the planter is 80 and wants to know it will arrive regardless = Legacy.
Legacy is less about the timescale and more about the intention: "I need this to outlast me." That's the signal. It doesn't have to be decades — it just needs to carry more weight than a regular vault can hold.
Description

Hex-faceted like antique glass — this is the jar you find in an attic and immediately understand was meant to last. Legacy vaults are built for situations where the memory needs to outlast the planter: grandparents to grandchildren, letters to unborn children, messages to be delivered after someone is gone.

The defining characteristic: the planter may not be alive when it blooms. Legacy doesn't just preserve a memory — it preserves a voice across whatever distance time creates.

Jar Design

Shape: Tall with horizontal score lines — faceted like antique glass. The lines suggest layers of time, depth, permanence.

Color: Purple (#6B5B8A) — depth, heritage, transformation. The color of something old and precious.

Animation: Centered seed glow with horizontal detail lines echoing the faceted glass. Slow, deliberate pulse.

Primary Use Cases
  • Grandparent to grandchild — voices, stories, recipes recorded before they're gone, delivered at meaningful ages
  • Messages for unborn children — planted before pregnancy, during pregnancy, before the child can understand
  • Letter from a parent for future milestones — "open when you're struggling," "open if I'm no longer here," "open on your wedding day"
  • Generational archive — family history, oral storytelling, lineage documentation
  • Terminal diagnosis legacy — a person recording what they want their family to carry forward
  • Estate or inheritance message — accompanying context for why decisions were made, who they were
  • 50-year time capsule — the longest arc DandyLine holds
Bloom Triggers That Fit
Age milestone Specific date Years from now Event trigger (external)
Settings to Design (Future Build)
Legacy designationName a trusted person to manage bloom delivery if the planter is unavailable. Identity-verified.
Capsule continuitySubscription-independent preservation — vault persists beyond account cancellation (Legacy Protection tier)
Inheritance transferLegal-style transfer mechanism: vault ownership passes to a designated heir
Multiple bloom datesDifferent seeds within the same vault bloom at different ages / dates / milestones (grandchild at 10, at 18, at wedding)
Identity verificationVerified delivery to the right person at the right age — for vaults with long timescales
Archival formatOption to export as a physical archive (printed memory book, memorial box) at time of bloom
Guided promptsDandyLine offers prompts to help planters think through what they want to preserve ("What do you want them to know about who you were?")
Story Example — Legacy Vault
"A grandmother's voice, preserved forever"
At 79, Eleanor recorded voice notes — stories from her childhood, recipes she'd never written down. Her family helped her plant them, each sealed for a different grandchild at a different age — some for age 10, others for graduation, others for their wedding day. She passed away last winter. The seeds are still waiting to bloom. She still has things to say. And DandyLine will deliver every one of them, exactly when she intended.
Revenue Model

Legacy Protection tier: ~$80–120/year. Long-term preservation guarantee. Inheritance transfer. Identity verification delivery. Capsule continuity beyond subscription cancellation. Peace of mind as a product.

Adjacent markets: estate planning, memorial services, ancestry platforms — all massively under-digitized and emotionally underserved. DandyLine enters as the warm, human alternative.

Visual Reference
dandyline-v5.html — Vault card with hex-faceted antique jar SVG in purple dandyline-v5.html — Story card: grandmother's seeds (planted for grandchildren before she passed) No dedicated screen flow for Legacy vault exists
Jar visual — hex-faceted antique glass form factor in purple Expandable vault card with Legacy settings table Posthumous delivery screen — "This seed was planted by [Name], who is no longer here" Long-horizon bloom notification (20+ years sealed) Legacy vault setup — inheritance instructions, guardian designation "Capsule continuity" communication — what happens to the vault after account ends
Highest emotional stakes, least visual presence. The grandmother story is the most powerful example in the whole deck — "she still has things to say, and DandyLine will deliver every one of them" — but it lives entirely as text. A Legacy bloom reveal (receiving a message from someone who has passed) would be the most emotionally resonant visual DandyLine could build. It's also the most technically and ethically sensitive to design. Design this carefully — it earns trust or destroys it.
Vault Type 05 — New
Journey New
A vault that moves through milestones, not dates — and connects you across time with others walking the same path.
You plant at a milestone. Someone else reaches that same milestone — months or years later — and your seed is waiting for them exactly there.
Terracotta Straight-sided Milestone-anchored Community Temporal connection
What makes Journey its own vault type
The only vault where time is measured in personal progress, not calendar dates. And the only vault that can reach strangers.
Journey vaults are milestone-anchored — "Day 30" is not a date, it's a point you earn. When you plant a seed at a milestone, anyone who reaches that same milestone (in the same journey category) can receive it — regardless of when they get there.

The distinction from all other vaults: Every other vault type is about personal time — your past self speaking to your future self, or to someone you know. Journey is about shared human time — strangers connected not by knowing each other, but by living through the same thing at the same point in their journey.

No calendar. No profiles. No social feed. The community dimension is purely temporal: you're connected by where you are in a journey, not who you are in the world.
Journey is the newest vault type — still in build. The sobriety Day 30 example is the clearest expression of what makes it distinct from everything else in DandyLine.
The Core Concept

A Journey vault isn't anchored to a calendar date. It's anchored to a personal milestone — Day 30, Month 6, Year 1 — of something you're actively living through.

You plant a seed at your milestone. It becomes available to anyone else who reaches that same milestone in the same journey — no matter when they get there. Someone who planted a voice note on their Day 30 of sobriety three years ago can still reach someone hitting Day 30 today.

You're not communicating in real time. You're traveling in time to meet someone exactly where you once were. The message you needed at that moment becomes the message someone else receives at theirs.

This is DandyLine's most radical idea: time doesn't have to be a calendar. It can be a shared human experience measured in personal steps.

Jar Design

Shape: Straight-sided and upright — deliberate, undecorated. A jar built for the journey, not the shelf. Practical and honest.

Color: Terracotta (#C4704A) — warm rust-orange. Distinct from gold. The color of ground covered, worn paths, and lived experience. Earthy and human without being heavy.

Animation: Ascending seeds connected by a faint dotted path inside the jar — from dim at the bottom (where the journey started) to bright at the top (where you are now). The path represents progress, not perfection.

Primary Use Cases
  • Sobriety — "Day 30: I want you to know it gets quieter. You don't stop wanting it — you just stop being ruled by it." Planted at Day 30, received by anyone hitting Day 30.
  • Grief — Month 3 of losing a parent. The specific, strange loneliness of that point. A message from someone who survived it to someone in the middle of it.
  • New parenthood — Week 2 with a newborn. The exhaustion, the awe, the feeling that you're failing and doing everything right simultaneously.
  • Cancer treatment — Round 3 of chemo. What you wish someone had told you. What helped. What was a lie.
  • Career transition — Month 1 of leaving a stable job. The doubt that arrives at 3am. What you'd tell yourself if you could.
  • Divorce / separation — 6 months out. The specific shape of rebuilding.
  • Mental health journey — Day 100 of consistent therapy. What shifted.
  • Fitness / physical goal — Week 8 of marathon training. The wall. What gets you through it.
  • Immigration / relocation — Year 1 in a new country or city. What you didn't expect. What surprised you.
Why It's Different

Every other vault type is about personal time — your past self speaking to your future self, or to someone you know.

Journey is about shared human time — strangers connected not by knowing each other but by living through the same thing at the same milestone. The community dimension isn't social (no profiles, no followers, no feeds) — it's temporal. You're connected by where you are in a journey, not who you are in the world.

This is DandyLine's answer to the community question: not a feed, not a forum — a temporal relay.

Full Settings Specification (For Deep Build)
Milestone typeDay-based (Day 1, Day 30, Day 100) / Week-based / Month-based / Year-based / Custom event marker ("First therapy session," "Left the hospital," "Said yes")
Journey categorySobriety · Grief · New parenthood · Career transition · Health/illness recovery · Fitness goal · Mental health journey · Immigration/relocation · Divorce/separation · Education · Custom (user-defined)
Your milestone markerThe specific point you're planting from — e.g., "I am at Day 30 of sobriety." This is the milestone others must reach to receive your seed.
Identity settingAnonymous (name hidden, seed attributed only to "someone at Day 30") / First name only / Full identity with optional profile link
Tone tagWhat you want your seed to feel like: Honest · Encouraging · Raw · Celebratory · Reflective · Warning · Tender · Practical
Media formatVoice note (recommended for authenticity) / Written / Photo / Video / Bundle
Community accessOpen — anyone on this journey receives it when they hit the milestone. Invite group — only people in your designated circle (e.g., a specific AA group). Private receiver — you receive others' seeds at this milestone but don't contribute one yourself.
Bloom windowHow long after hitting the milestone the seed remains visible: 24 hours only · 1 week · 30 days · Always accessible. Creates scarcity vs. permanence choice.
Milestone rangeDoes your seed appear at exactly Day 30, or also Day 28–32? Fuzzy matching option for journeys where milestones are approximate.
Seed curationAt popular milestones (Day 30 sobriety, for example), there may be hundreds of seeds. Curation options: Chronological · Most-received (if recipients can signal resonance) · Random · DandyLine-curated selection
Re-seedCan you plant a new seed at the same milestone later (e.g., you hit Day 30 again after a relapse)? Options: replace, add alongside, or plant as a separate journey.
Journey completionOptional: mark a journey as complete. Your seeds remain in the archive but you're no longer "on" this path. Celebration bloom sent to you.
Story Example — Journey Vault
"Day 30. You made it here."
Three years ago, someone hit Day 30 of sobriety and recorded a voice note at 11pm, sitting in their car outside a gas station they had driven to out of habit. They talked about the specific pull they felt standing at the door. They talked about driving away. They talked about what it felt like to be still sitting there. That voice note is waiting for everyone who hits Day 30. Not because it was addressed to them — but because it was addressed to exactly where they are.
Design & Privacy Principles for Journey

The Journey vault sits at the intersection of DandyLine's deepest privacy commitment and its most social concept. The solution is temporal community without social infrastructure:

  • No profiles visible to strangers. No follower counts. No likes.
  • Seeds are attributed by milestone, not by identity (unless the planter opts into identity disclosure).
  • Resonance signals (if any) should be private — only the planter sees how many people their seed reached. Never public.
  • The connection is the milestone. The community is the journey. Neither requires social identity.

Future build priority: Journey is the newest vault type and needs its own deep-dive page with walkthrough (the sobriety example is the first candidate). The jar animation for Journey could evolve — consider showing seeds ascending in real-time as a user scrolls through their milestone progress. The "traveling in time to connect with someone at your milestone" concept needs an interactive demo or visual before it fully lands for a new user.

Visual Reference
dandyline-v5.html — Vault card with ascending-seeds jar SVG in amber No screen flow exists — Journey is the most visually undeveloped vault No dedicated walkthrough or deep-dive page built yet
Jar visual — straight-sided jar with ascending seeds + dotted milestone path in amber Journey vault setup — milestone type selection (day/week/month/custom) Journey category picker (sobriety, grief, new parenthood, health, fitness, etc.) Milestone progress view — seeds ascending as milestones are reached Community resonance — "others at your milestone planted this" experience Day 30 sobriety bloom reveal — the flagship example story Journey deep-dive page (dandyline-journey-v1.html — not yet created)
Everything needs to be built. Journey is concept-complete but visually blank. The sobriety Day 30 story is the strongest, most emotionally distinct use case — the one that separates Journey from all other vault types. It needs to be the first thing built as a dedicated HTML walkthrough page. The "temporal community" concept (connecting with strangers at your same milestone, never by identity) is the most novel idea in the DandyLine deck — it requires an interactive demo to land properly with any reader.
Design Decisions Pending

Open questions. Capture here, decide before building.

These are unresolved product questions that came up during vault design reviews. None are blocking — but each will need an answer before the relevant feature ships. Add new questions here as they surface during sessions. Hot items are the ones most likely to affect other decisions if left unresolved.

Grove — Open Questions
What happens when a contributor's relationship changes before the bloom? Divorce, estrangement, death. Can a seed be recalled by the planter? If someone is removed from the Grove, do their seeds stay or go? Does the recipient ever know a seed was removed?
Hot because: the answer affects contributor trust, legal exposure, and how DandyLine handles emotionally complicated family situations.
What happens to a contributor's seed if they die before the bloom? Their seed is still in the jar. It still blooms. Is this acknowledged anywhere in the UI? Handled differently from a living contributor's seed? This could be the most profound Grove moment — and DandyLine should design for it, not stumble into it.
Hot because: this is high emotional stakes. Getting it right earns deep trust. Getting it wrong causes real harm.
What happens if a contributor was invited but never planted? Does the vault bloom anyway on schedule? Does the recipient know someone was invited but didn't contribute? Is there a "contribution deadline" setting, or does it wait indefinitely?
Asymmetric contribution — does the recipient see who planted what and how much? Grandma added 12 seeds. Dad added 1. Does the recipient see counts per contributor? Or does it arrive as one unified bloom where individual credit is invisible?
Simultaneous vs. sequential bloom — which is the default? Does everyone open the vault at the exact same moment (reunion energy, shared experience)? Or does each contributor's seeds bloom individually on their own timeline (more intimate, less coordinated)? Should this be a setting the vault creator controls?
Open-ended planting vs. sealed-at-deadline — how does this work in the UI? The "ongoing family archive" use case requires planting to stay open indefinitely. The "time capsule" use case requires a sealed, fixed set of seeds. These feel like two different product behaviors under the same vault type. Is there a "planting window" setting?
Personal — Open Questions
Where exactly is the line between Personal, Milestone, and Legacy? A solo parent planting for their child's 18th = Personal or Milestone? A grandparent at 78 planting for a grandchild's 18th = Personal or Legacy? The vault type chooser needs clear decision logic — not just descriptions, but decision questions the user can answer.
Hot because: if users pick the wrong vault type, they may not get the features they actually need (continuity guarantees, settings, etc.).
Can a Personal vault be re-opened and added to after sealing? A "Re-seal option" is in the settings table but hasn't been defined. If someone plants a letter at 25 and wants to add a postscript at 32, how does that work? Does the recipient see the original + the addition separately, or as one combined thing?
How does DandyLine verify an age-milestone trigger? If a Personal vault is set to bloom when a recipient turns 18, how does the app know? Does the recipient need to verify their birthday? What if the app has no record of their age?
Milestone — Open Questions
Is Milestone truly a distinct vault type, or is it Personal with an event label? The defining feature of Milestone is "occasion-defined" — but that's really just a Personal vault where the trigger is culturally significant. Does Milestone need to be its own vault type, or should it be a mood/label within Personal? Needs product decision before building the vault chooser.
Hot because: if Milestone is really just Personal + occasion context, collapsing them simplifies the product without losing any features.
The "five friends" story currently assigned to Milestone is actually Grove. Five people co-planting = Grove. Need a new Milestone story example that demonstrates one planter, one recipient, one occasion. (Flagged during vault review — not yet fixed.)
Repeat milestone setting — how does this work in practice? "Re-seed for recurring milestones (birthday every year, anniversary every year)" is in the settings table. Does the planter need to actively re-plant each year, or does DandyLine auto-prompt them? Does the vault auto-renew, or does each year require a new vault?
Legacy — Open Questions
What is the posthumous delivery mechanism, exactly? If the planter has died, who confirms the delivery should happen? Is there a "legacy guardian" — a trusted person who holds a key? How is identity verified at bloom if the planter is gone? This is the most technically and ethically complex feature in the product.
Hot because: this is the feature that earns or destroys the deepest user trust. Needs design before anything else in Legacy is built.
What happens to the vault if the account lapses? "Capsule continuity — subscription-independent preservation" is in the settings, but the mechanism isn't defined. How long does DandyLine hold a vault after cancellation? Is there a one-time Legacy Protection payment? What are the legal obligations?
The posthumous delivery screen needs to be designed with extreme care. Receiving a message from someone who has passed should not feel like a notification. What does that UX look like? How does DandyLine signal the weight of the moment before it opens? (Flagged as Priority 4 in Visual Gap tracker.)
Journey — Open Questions
How does the "temporal community" actually work at the product level? When someone hits Day 30 of sobriety, how many seeds do they receive? From whom? Is it curated (DandyLine surfaces the most resonant ones) or random? Can they receive multiple? Is there a UI for browsing seeds at your milestone, or is it delivered like a bloom — one at a time?
Hot because: this is Journey's most novel feature and nothing like it exists in any other vault type. It needs a defined interaction model before Journey can be built.
How does DandyLine verify a Journey milestone? If someone claims they're at Day 30 of sobriety, how is that verified? It can't be — and shouldn't be (privacy). But if milestones are self-reported, what prevents abuse? Does the community trust model work on the honor system? Is that okay?
Can a Journey seed be received multiple times by the same person? If someone relapses and starts sobriety over, do they receive the same Day 30 seeds again? Does DandyLine know? Should it?
The sobriety example is the clearest — but also the most sensitive. Sobriety, grief, and mental health journeys involve vulnerable people in active recovery. DandyLine needs a thoughtful content policy for Journey seeds in these categories. What are the guardrails?
Cross-Vault — General Open Questions
Can a vault be re-categorized after creation? If someone creates a Personal vault and then wants their partner to co-plant, can it become a Grove? Or is the vault type locked at creation?
The vault chooser UX needs decision logic, not just descriptions. Users won't always know which vault type to pick. The chooser should ask a few questions: "Is someone else planting with you?" → Grove. "Is this for a specific life event?" → Milestone. "Do you need this to be delivered no matter what?" → Legacy. Design this flow before launch.
What is the minimum viable "planting ritual"? DandyLine's language treats planting as a ceremony. But the actual flow needs to feel like that too. How long should it take? What are the steps? What confirms to the planter that this moment has been honored?
Visual Reference & Gap Map

What exists. What's missing. What to build next.

This section references all visual assets built across the DandyLine HTML files. Use it to identify where the visual storytelling is strong and where gaps exist. Source files are noted so styling can be compared and maintained across all pages.

Vault Jar SVG Screen Flow Example Story Phone Mockup Status
Grove ✓ ✓ 4 screens (bloom-reveal-v3) ✓ Stella + Marcus ◑ Timeline + Bloom Strong
Personal ✓ ✗ ◑ IVF story (text only) ◑ Planting flow step 1 Needs Screen Flow
Milestone ✓ ✗ ◑ Misattributed story ✗ Needs Both
Legacy ✓ ✗ ◑ Grandmother story (text only) ✗ Needs Screen Flow
Journey New ✓ ✗ ✗ Concept only — no character ✗ Build Everything
Existing Visual: Grove Bloom Sequence

Source: dandyline-bloom-reveal-v3.html · Narrative: Stella, age 15 · Vault type: Grove · Memory: Voice note from Grandma planted at birth

Screen 08
Lock Screen Bloom Notification
Gold notification: "A memory is ready to bloom." Blue notification: "2 more seeds open soon." Twinkling stars, floating seeds, swipe-up hint.
.s-notify · .nc-gold · .nc-blue
Screen 09
The Vault Opens
"Stella's Life Capsule" — created 2011. Jar glows. Contributor chips: Grandma (12), Mom (8), Dad (6), Aunt Sarah (4). 1 blooming now · 24 sealed.
.s-vault · .vault-amb · .cr-chip
Screen 10
The Memory Player
Grandma's voice note plays. Waveform animation. "Hi Stella. You're asleep in my arms..." Planted March 4, 2011 · Bloomed today. Pulse rings on play icon.
.s-player · .mc-card · .pr
Screen 11
After the Bloom
"What would you like to do with this memory?" 24 seeds still waiting, broken down by contributor. Needs richer UI — currently text-heavy, under-designed.
.ah-title · .ap-btn · .sw-chip
Existing Visual: App Concept Phone Mockups

Source: dandyline-v5.html · Section: #app-concept · Phones: 260×520px, border-radius 32px

Phone 1
Home / Timeline
Greeting + sealed memory list. "Letter to Future Me" (Dec 2028 · Sealed) + "Dad's Voice, Thanksgiving" (Age 30 · Grove). Background: dark blue gradient. Class: .scr-home
Phone 2
Vault / Bloom
Animated dandelion seed. "Your vault is blooming. A memory planted 3 years ago is ready to open. Take a breath." Gold radial glow background. Class: .scr-vault
Phone 3
Planting Flow — Step 1
"What would you like to preserve?" Four options: Photo/Video (gold), Voice Note (sky), Written Story (sage), Memory Bundle (purple). Step indicator: 1 of 5. Class: .scr-plant
Visual Build Priorities
Personal Vault — Priority 1
Build a "letter to future me" bloom reveal sequence. 3–4 screens: sealed timeline item → vault opens → message plays → reflection. Solo experience, no contributor group. This is the most universally relatable DandyLine experience and has zero visual storytelling right now.
Journey Vault — Priority 2
Build dandyline-journey-v1.html as a dedicated walkthrough page. Lead with the sobriety Day 30 story — full character, full bloom reveal, full "someone at your milestone planted this" community moment. This is DandyLine's most novel concept and it needs an interactive demo before anyone can truly grasp it.
Planting Flow — Priority 3
Build Steps 2–5 of the planting flow. Step 1 exists (media type selection). Still needed: Step 2 (add content), Step 3 (set bloom trigger), Step 4 (label the seed), Step 5 (seal and confirm). The sealing ritual — that final confirmation — is a key brand moment that doesn't exist visually yet.
Legacy Vault — Priority 4
Design the posthumous delivery screen with extreme care. This is the most emotionally sensitive moment in the DandyLine product — receiving a message from someone who has passed. The grandmother story is ready; it needs a visual. Note: requires thoughtful UX around grief, reverence, and pacing. Should not feel like a notification.
Milestone Vault — Priority 5
Replace the "five friends" story with a true Milestone example — a parent writing a graduation letter, a sibling planting something for a future wedding day. Then build the corresponding screen: a birthday bloom notification that shows how long the memory has been waiting ("Planted 2014 · Waiting 10 years · Blooming today").
Grove Vault — Screen 11 Redesign
Redesign the after-bloom state (Screen 11). The "what do you do after opening a memory?" moment needs more visual depth — options to replay, respond, share privately, or see what seeds are still coming. Currently text-only and anticlimactic after the emotional peak of Screen 10.
Language Rules for All Vaults

Words we use. Words we don't.

We plant, preserve, seal, and bloom. We do not post, share, upload, store, or go live. Every verb is a ritual verb. The language of nature runs through every interaction.

Seeds, not files. Memories are seeds. Vaults are gardens. The timeline is a garden path. Never "file," "content," "media," or "upload."

Notifications read like poetry. "A memory you planted years ago is ready to bloom." Never: "You have 3 unread memories." The pace of the product is the pace of the language.

The jar is never "storage." It is a vessel. A commitment. An heirloom. It holds something. It waits. It doesn't "back up" anything.

Time is active, not passive. "The vault waits" — not "the vault stores." "The memory travels" — not "the memory is saved." Time is the medium, not the container.

Vault labels follow this pattern: "Open on your 18th birthday." "Open when you forgive yourself." "Open if I'm no longer here." "Open when you become a mother." "Open in 10 years." The label is an intention. Never a filename.

DandyLine Vault Master · Cross-referenced from all source docs · Updated March 2026