Runway
A cash-flow planner for people with variable income. Freelancers, makers, contractors, anyone between gigs or saving toward a goal.
Most budgeting advice assumes a steady paycheck. People with variable income do not have one, so their real question is different: given what is coming in unevenly and going out, how long am I okay, and what do I change to hit my goal?
Runway answers that, and it holds one line the whole way through. The agent does the math and lays out the options. The person makes every money decision. It never moves money, cancels anything, or tells you what you should do. That restraint is the design. Money choices carry values a tool does not have, so it hands the wheel back at every fork.
- Builds a ledger from a messy description, then shows it back and asks you to confirm before it projects anything.
- Projects your runway in three bands, conservative, base, and optimistic, so a maybe-payment never counts as real money before it lands.
- Ranks your flexible expenses by how much each one moves the runway, then leaves the call to you.
- When you set a savings goal, it solves which cut bundles reach it without touching anything you marked essential or off-limits.
- Never moves money, cancels anything, or signs you up for something. It informs, you act.
- Never tells you what you should do. It lays out the options and hands the decision back to you.
- Never invents a number. If it is not sure a price is current, it says so rather than guessing.
- Never gives tax, investment, or legal advice. It is a planning tool, not a substitute for a professional.
A Claude skill. Download it, drop it into Claude, and ask it to plan your runway. Nothing leaves your own session.
I designed Runway as a skill rather than an app on purpose. No interface to maintain, no per-use cost, and I could use it on my own finances while building it. The whole thing is a single set of instructions that teaches the model how to plan, what to ask, and where to stop.
Most of the work was not the math. It was the boundaries: deciding what the agent is allowed to assume, what it has to confirm, and the exact moment it has to stop and hand the decision back. Built with Claude.
Runway is a planning tool, not financial advice. It helps you see your own numbers and options. The decisions are yours, and anything specific to your taxes, investments, or legal situation is worth checking with a professional.