Most metaphysics apps organize around spectacle: a heavy module you open once, show a friend, and forget. Full chart reports, dramatic compatibility scores, annual forecasts styled like alarm bells. They win a click because novelty is loud. They lose the morning after because there is nothing honest to revisit without manufacturing new fear or new hype.
Daovian's product home is deliberately narrower: Today.
What Today is
Today combines verifiable almanac notes with — when you have a main chart — relationships the engine can explain about that calendar day. Stems and branches on the civil date, solar term context, traditional day notes where our source layer supports them, and chart-linked references that follow documented rules rather than model improvisation.
It is the page we want someone to open after coffee: small enough to scan, grounded enough to trust, variable enough across days to feel alive without screaming.
Optional AI short-reads stay on Pro and remain optional. The facts panel still works with AI off. That matters for retention — users who learn to read stems/day notes do not depend on a chatty wrapper to get value.
Why not lead with everything?
Our marketing site lists the full module catalog honestly: MVP depth versus roadmap. The app home does not try to be the catalog. If the first screen is twelve tiles for twelve futures, every tile competes for attention and the unfinished ones lie by looking clickable.
Roadmap modules (Ziwei, Qimen, naming tools, and others) stay labeled until method notes and calculation ship. The app avoids fake calculators that return random reassurance. Narrow home scope is how we keep that promise visible daily.
Retention without doom
Many competitors retain through anxiety: daily bad luck scores, push notifications about "danger hours," streaks that punish absence. That works short term and erodes trust long term — especially when the user realizes the score is neither reproducible nor citable.
Today is built for a calmer loop:
- Rhythm — the day changes; the page updates with calendar truth you can check.
- Personal anchor — attach a main chart and see rule-bound relationships, not a new theatrical prediction every morning.
- Depth on demand — tap through to Bazi or Almanac when you need more than a daily glance.
We optimize for weekly return, not viral panic. If a feature idea only makes sense as a one-time screenshot, it belongs on the roadmap or the blog — not on the home surface.
How Today connects to the engine stack
Today is not a separate toy calendar. It shares the same deterministic core as Bazi and Almanac date browsing. When we fix a solar-term edge case or document a stem-branch rule, the fix propagates. When a day note links to a source, it uses the same citation discipline as chart interpretation.
That shared core is what makes Today a product surface instead of content marketing dressed as an app. The user learns one system, not three conflicting ones.
MVP reality while the app is in build
We are honest about status: the public app is still under construction. This site explains method and module readiness; early access runs through email while Today, Bazi, and Almanac stabilize. The marketing promise matches the build order — daily reference first, depth modules next, spectacle never ahead of rules.
Design principles we keep re-testing
- Facts above fold — interpretation below, AI last.
- Same day, same facts — reload should not drift.
- No paywall on basic day context — Pro adds explanation and tools, not the existence of Tuesday.
- Clear empty states — if we lack a source for a strong claim, say so.
The contrast in one line
Spectacle modules win a click. Daily reference wins a return.
Today is where Daovian proves we respect the user's time: something useful, checkable, and quietly worth reopening tomorrow — without pretending the calendar owes them a destiny headline.