SparkOffbrain

A daily run sheet of things worth using

Spark, the stack for Friday, 24 July 2026

01EditorialLead1 min read

The free tier is the real product tour

How a company shapes the free version tells you more about how it will treat you later than any feature page.

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A free tier is a set of decisions made under pressure. Someone had to choose what to give away, what to hold back, and where to put the wall. Those choices are readable.

The useful question is not how much you get. It is what shape the limit takes. A limit on volume says: use this properly, pay when it becomes load bearing. A limit that removes export, or history, or the ability to leave, says something else. So does a free tier that works beautifully until the exact moment you have put real work into it.

Read the limit before the feature list. It is a better predictor of the second year than anything written in the pricing table.

Also in this stack

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  1. 02WorkflowName files so you can find them in a yearOne naming rule, five parts, sortable by default. Download it and keep it next to wherever you save things.Markdown, 1.4 KBOpenClose

    One naming rule, five parts, sortable by default. Download it and keep it next to wherever you save things.

    Search is good at content and bad at intent. It will find every document containing the word invoice and none of them will be the one you meant.

    A name that starts with a date sorts itself. A name that carries the subject and the state can be scanned in a list without opening anything. Five parts is enough, and the rule is short enough to actually follow at three in the afternoon.

    The naming rule, MarkdownMarkdown, 1.4 KB, file-naming-rule.md
    # One file naming rule

`YYYY-MM-DD_subject_what-it-is_who-for_state`

Example: `2026-07-24_spark_design-brief_offbrain_final.md`

## The five parts

1. **Date first, ISO order.** It sorts correctly in every file browser without configuring anything.
2. **Subject.** The project or the person. One word if you can.
3. **What it is.** invoice, brief, transcript, contract, notes.
4. **Who it is for.** The client, the team, or yourself.
5. **State.** draft, review, final, signed, archived.

## Rules that keep it alive

- Lower case, hyphens inside a part, underscores between parts.
- Never write `final-final`. Change the state or change the date.
- If a part does not apply, drop it. Do not write `na`.
- Rename on receipt, not later. Later does not arrive.
    Show full file
    # One file naming rule

`YYYY-MM-DD_subject_what-it-is_who-for_state`

Example: `2026-07-24_spark_design-brief_offbrain_final.md`

## The five parts

1. **Date first, ISO order.** It sorts correctly in every file browser without configuring anything.
2. **Subject.** The project or the person. One word if you can.
3. **What it is.** invoice, brief, transcript, contract, notes.
4. **Who it is for.** The client, the team, or yourself.
5. **State.** draft, review, final, signed, archived.

## Rules that keep it alive

- Lower case, hyphens inside a part, underscores between parts.
- Never write `final-final`. Change the state or change the date.
- If a part does not apply, drop it. Do not write `na`.
- Rename on receipt, not later. Later does not arrive.
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    Download Markdown, 1.4 KB

    Receipt

    Source
    First party. Made by Spark.
    Cost
    Free.
    Free route
    This is the free version.
    Tested
    2026-07-24
    Material connection
    None.
    The catch
    It only pays off if you apply it to incoming files as they land. Renaming a backlog of four thousand files is a different project and probably not worth it.

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