CoinStack

CoinStack is a cross-platform personal finance app focused on practical money management and long-term behavior change.

• Web: Blazor Server (CoinStack)
• Mobile: native .NET MAUI (CoinStack.Mobile)
• Data: EF Core + SQLite (current runtime)

It combines budgeting features with gamified feedback (score/streaks/reflections) to help users build consistent financial habits.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Platforms
• Current Architecture
• Roadmap
• Repository Structure
• Getting Started
• Build and Run
• Testing
• Troubleshooting
• Known Gaps / Open Work
• License

Features

Core modules

• Dashboard
• Transactions
• Buckets/Budgets
• Goals
• Savings
• Subscriptions
• Debt
• Debt Simulator
• Reports
• Waitlist
• Settings

Behavior layer

• Daily check-ins and streak progression
• Score event tracking for budget behaviors
• Reflection prompts for key triggers (over-budget, impulse spend, savings dip)

Platforms

• Blazor web app: primary full-featured experience
• MAUI mobile app: native mobile shell with major module parity (actively iterated)

Current Architecture

• .NET 10 solution with shared domain entities and data layer
• EF Core + SQLite persistence
• Service-oriented business logic (transactions, scoring, reflections, savings, debt, reporting)

Roadmap

Product roadmap

• Deeper analytics and richer report filters
• Reminder/notification workflows
• More automation around goals/savings/debt planning
• Continued mobile UX and parity polish

Platform/infra roadmap

• Shared backend API for Blazor + MAUI
• Server-hosted central database for sync-enabled users
• Dual data mode:
  1. Local-only (offline-first)
  2. Synced (API + server DB)

This allows users to choose between privacy/local control and cross-device sync convenience.

Repository Structure

• CoinStack/ – Blazor Server app
• CoinStack.Mobile/ – native MAUI app
• CoinStack.Mobile.Core/ – shared mobile helper abstractions
• CoinStack.Data/ – EF Core DbContext, entities, migrations
• CoinStack.Tests/ – unit/integration test project
• Aspire.CoinStack/ – Aspire app host/orchestration

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Git
• .NET 10 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 (17.10+ recommended) with:
  • .NET Multi-platform App UI development workload
  • ASP.NET and web development workload
  • (Optional) Desktop development with C++ if you need Android emulator acceleration support

Mobile platform requirements

• Windows desktop target

  • Windows 10 (19041+) or Windows 11
  • Windows App SDK dependencies installed by Visual Studio workloads

• Android target

  • Android SDK + platform tools (installed via Visual Studio)
  • At least one Android Emulator image (or a physical device with USB debugging enabled)
  • Java SDK (managed by Visual Studio/Android tooling)

One-time setup

Restore dependencies:

dotnet restore CoinStack.slnx

Install MAUI workloads (only needed once per machine):

dotnet workload install maui

Optional, if mobile build/runtime dependencies drift:

dotnet workload restore

Verify installed SDKs/workloads:

dotnet --list-sdks
dotnet workload list

Trust local HTTPS development certificate (for web app localhost HTTPS):

dotnet dev-certs https --trust

Clone

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/coin-stack.git
cd coin-stack

Build and Run

Build whole solution

dotnet build CoinStack.slnx -c Release

Run web app

dotnet run --project CoinStack/CoinStack.csproj

Then open the URL shown in terminal (typically https://localhost:7xxx or http://localhost:5xxx).

Run mobile app (Windows)

dotnet build CoinStack.Mobile/CoinStack.Mobile.csproj -t:Run -f net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0

Run mobile app (Android)

dotnet build CoinStack.Mobile/CoinStack.Mobile.csproj -t:Run -f net10.0-android

This requires an Android emulator/device running and visible to Visual Studio/ADB.

Build mobile app (without running)

dotnet build CoinStack.Mobile/CoinStack.Mobile.csproj -c Release

Testing

Run tests:

dotnet test CoinStack.Tests/CoinStack.Tests.csproj

Troubleshooting

Build fails with missing MAUI workloads

Run:

dotnet workload install maui
dotnet workload restore

If still failing, close Visual Studio/VS Code and rerun the commands in a fresh terminal.

Android device/emulator not detected

• Start an emulator from Visual Studio's Android Device Manager first.
• For physical devices, enable Developer Options + USB Debugging.
• Verify ADB can see the device:

adb devices

HTTPS/localhost certificate issues on web app

Run:

dotnet dev-certs https --clean
dotnet dev-certs https --trust

Then restart the browser and rerun the app.

dotnet run starts but page does not load

• Confirm the terminal output URL and open that exact address.
• Check for port conflicts from other running apps.
• Try forcing a specific URL:

dotnet run --project CoinStack/CoinStack.csproj --urls "https://localhost:7043;http://localhost:5043"

NuGet restore/package issues

dotnet nuget locals all --clear
dotnet restore CoinStack.slnx

Clean rebuild when in a bad state

dotnet clean CoinStack.slnx
dotnet build CoinStack.slnx -c Release

Known Gaps / Open Work

• Reconnect UX still requires final manual scenario verification
• Shared API/server sync mode is planned but not yet production-integrated
• Mobile parity is strong but still under active QA and UX refinement

License

This project is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

You may copy, use, and modify the project with attribution, but you may not use it commercially.

See LICENSE for full details.