I want to…
On this page: Set up my engine from its manual · Photograph a locker and get it into Inventory · Photograph a nameplate and add the equipment · The chandlery sent an order confirmation · A receipt from the yard · Get ready for Saturday's trip · I'm back from a sail · Something broke · I did a job · Check the papers before the season · Lay up for winter, recommission in spring · What will the boat cost me next year · Hand the boat's record to someone · Move to a new phone
The other chapters explain the app by area. This one starts from what you want to get done. Each recipe says how to do it in the app and, where an assistant does it better, the ask to give one. The ask is written to be pasted into Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant connected to your boat (see Assistants).
Three things hold for every recipe:
- A photo or a PDF goes into the chat, not into LazyJack. The assistant reads what you drop into the conversation, then writes records into your boat. A manual or a receipt it should keep goes into LazyJack as a document afterwards, through a link, so you end up with both.
- The assistant shows you a summary and waits for your yes before it writes anything. If it does not, say "show me first".
- It never archives or deletes on its own, and anything of that kind waits for your approval on the Account page.
Set up my engine from its manual
You have the engine's manual as a PDF and want the engine in LazyJack with its details, its service schedule and its hours.
In the app: the first run adds the engine, its meter and the usual plans in three steps (Setting up). Specifications are typed one by one on the engine's page, and the manual is added on the Documents page and attached to the engine.
With your assistant, drop the manual into the chat and ask:
Here is the manual for my engine, a Volvo Penta D2-40. The meter says 2,491 hours. Set the engine up in LazyJack: its specifications from the manual, the service plans with the intervals the manual gives and the filters and belts each one uses, the hours, and file the manual attached to the engine.
It will find or create the engine (equipment_list, equipment_create), add the specifications in one go (equipment_add_specifications_batch: oil capacity, oil grade, filter part numbers, belt sizes, coolant), set up the meter and record the hours (meter_create, reading_record), make a plan per service with its interval and the items it needs (inventory_item_create_batch, maintenance_plan_create with requirements), and file the manual (document_create attached to the engine, then asset_import_from_url with the attachment's link or an upload link). Then ask: "What is the next job due, and what should I buy for it?"
Photograph a locker and get it into Inventory
You open a locker, take a picture, and want LazyJack to know what is in it.
In the app: add each item (Add item asks the name, how many and where), or on the location's page press Count and type a number per item.
With your assistant, take one clear photo per shelf or bag and ask:
This is the port cockpit locker. Here is a photo. Tell me what you can see, how many of each, and which of them LazyJack already tracks. Then record a count of this locker: what is there is there, and anything missing from LazyJack gets added.
It reads the photo, matches each thing to an item you have (inventory_item_match, inventory_location_list), lists what it is sure of and what it is guessing (a box it cannot see into is a guess), and on your yes records the locker's count in one call (inventory_stock_count per location) and adds the items it did not find (inventory_item_create_batch with starting stock). Something it saw that LazyJack says is in another locker, it offers to move (inventory_stock_record kind moved) rather than count twice.
Verify instead of record: "Here is the grab bag. Check it against the kit called Grab bag and tell me what is missing or expired." It reads the kit (inventory_kit_get) and the expiry batches (inventory_item_get), and answers; it changes nothing unless you ask.
Photograph a nameplate and add the equipment
A pump, a charger or a windlass with a plate full of numbers you would rather not type.
With your assistant, photograph the plate and ask:
Add this to LazyJack. It is the raw-water pump on the engine, in the engine bay.
It reads make, model, serial number and ratings off the plate, picks the type (list_values_get for the types), creates the equipment under the engine (equipment_create with parentId and location), adds the ratings as specifications (equipment_add_specifications_batch), and files the photo as a document attached to it. Ask for several plates in one message and it does them in one batch (equipment_create_batch).
The chandlery sent an order confirmation
In the app: on each item press Ordered and type the quantity, shop, price and order number.
With your assistant, paste the e-mail or drop the PDF:
Here is the order confirmation from Marineshop. Record these as ordered.
It matches each line to an item or creates one (inventory_item_match, inventory_item_create), adds one order per line with the quantity, shop, price and order number (inventory_order_add), and leaves shipping out. The items show on To buy as covered and on the On order tab. When the box arrives, say "The Marineshop order arrived, everything was in it, it went in the engine spares locker": it records each line as received against its order (inventory_stock_record kind received with orderId), which closes the orders and books the purchase as a paid expense.
A receipt from the yard
The yard did the engine service and handed you an invoice.
In the app: open the job, press Did the job, type the cost and who was paid, attach a photo of the invoice.
With your assistant, photograph the invoice:
The yard did the 500-hour service on 3 October at 2,500 hours, here is the invoice. Mark the job done.
It finds the open job (work_list), reads the total and the vendor, and marks it done with the hours, the cost and the vendor in one call (maintenance_task_complete), which records the reading and the paid expense; the invoice is filed as a document attached to the job (document_create, document_attach). It tells you when the next one is due.
Get ready for Saturday's trip
In the app: Plan a trip, then on the trip's page work through Prepare: the departure checklist and the kit. Today's Next trip card keeps the summary.
With your assistant, pick "Before my next trip" from its menu, or ask:
Help me get ready for Saturday's trip to Son.
It reads the planned trip (voyage_list), Do first and Soon (work_list, readiness_get), the papers and dates that fall before the day, the departure checklist's state (checklist_run_list) and the kit (inventory_kit_list), and tells you what stands in the way, in that order. It offers to start the departure checklist for the trip (checklist_run_start) and never says the boat is ready.
I'm back from a sail
In the app: End trip on Today's trip card, or Log a trip for one you did not start in the app.
With your assistant, pick "Log a trip", or say it as you would to a friend:
Back from today's sail. Hankø to Son, left about 10, back at 16:30, Anna and Jonas aboard, engine now 2,493.5. The bilge pump ran more than it should.
It records the whole trip, its reading and the problem in one call (voyage_complete with readings and defects), using your saved places and people (waypoint_list, crew_list), and asks before adding a person or a place it does not know.
Something broke
In the app: Something's wrong, from the Record menu or Today's trip card: what, whether it is urgent, and the position if you are out.
With your assistant, pick "Something's wrong" or just say it:
The autopilot drops out under load. Not urgent.
It finds the equipment (equipment_list or search), confirms the match, records the problem (defect_create), and then asks whether to schedule a fix (maintenance_task_create with the problem's id) or keep watching. A photo of the fault helps it name the equipment.
I did a job
In the app: Did the job on the job's row or page: the day, the hours, the cost, the items used.
With your assistant, pick "I did a job" or say:
Changed the oil and both filters today at 2,500 hours, used the filters from stock, paid 1,250 to Marineservice for the oil.
It finds the job (work_list), takes the items from stock (inventory_item_match), warns you if the stock is short, and marks the job done in one call (maintenance_task_complete), which makes the reading and the expense. It tells you when the next one is due.
Check the papers before the season
In the app: Boat details, Papers: the four slots and their expiry dates. Today reports a paper 30 days before it expires.
With your assistant, drop the renewal letter or the new certificate into the chat:
Here is the new insurance certificate. File it, and then tell me which papers expire before July.
It creates the document with its type and expiry (document_create, kind insurance, expiresAt as a plain day), attaches the file (asset_import_from_url), and reads the rest (document_list). A survey works the same way, and its findings can become problems: "Record each fault the surveyor listed as a problem, medium severity, against the equipment it concerns, and attach the survey to each."
Lay up for winter, recommission in spring
In the app: write a checklist for each (Add checklist takes a plain outline), add the jobs the lay-up needs, and make a standing kit of what winter uses.
With your assistant, drop the manual's winterising pages or your own notes:
Make me a winter lay-up checklist and a spring recommissioning checklist from these pages, with sections, and add a job for each thing that needs a part, due 1 November.
It writes the two checklists from an outline (checklist_template_create), makes the jobs (maintenance_task_create) with their items (maintenance_task_set_requirements), and a kit of what to have aboard (inventory_kit_create). In spring, "Start the recommissioning checklist" starts a run (checklist_run_start), and it ticks items as you report them done (checklist_run_update_item); it never completes or cancels a run unless you ask.
What will the boat cost me next year
In the app: Budget, By month, with the range set to next 12 or 24 months; the Notes under it say what is missing from the figure.
With your assistant:
What will the boat cost me over the next twelve months, and what is that figure missing?
It reads the forecast with its lines (budget_forecast_get with detail), gives the months and the five lines, and says what is uncounted, unpriced and left out (ideas, jobs without an estimate). Ask "add an estimate of 4,000 to the rigging inspection" and it does (maintenance_task_update), and the figure moves.
Hand the boat's record to someone
A surveyor, a buyer, or the next owner wants to see what was done.
In the app only: Account, Download a copy. The zip has a readable page, index.html, that opens in any browser with every record, the service history and the documents, and leaves your contact details and the purchase price out (Backup). An assistant cannot make or send this copy.
Move to a new phone
In the app only: sign in on the new phone; the boat's copy arrives on the first pull. Let the old phone sync first, so nothing made only there is left behind (Backup).
Not in this chapter
Each recipe's ground is in its chapter: Setting up, A trip, Work, Inventory, Budget, Documents, Backup. Connecting an assistant and the rules it follows: Assistants. The ideas behind the app: How LazyJack thinks.