Core Concepts

Mottainai aims to simplify how you manage your everyday life. To avoid learning a dozen different apps, Mottainai uses a unified structure underneath: everything is a Container filled with Items, and you invite Contacts to collaborate.

Here are the three core organizing principles behind Mottainai:

1. Containers

Think of a "Container" as a digital box, binder, or folder depending on what you use it for. There are five main types of containers, each tailored for a specific use case:

• 📦 Storage: Your household inventory and shopping list. Keeps track of grocery quantities, expiration dates, and acts as a central hub for refilling supplies.
• 📋 Board (Kanban): A visual project board divided into columns. Great for tracking tasks ranging from minor house chores to large collaborative projects.
• 📅 Calendar: Used to track individual schedules, holidays, and regular events. Unlike physical calendars, you can mix and match different calendar containers in Mottainai into a unified Aggregate View.
• 💳 SharedPay: Used exclusively for tracking shared financial expenses among friends, roommates, or families.
• 📖 Recipe Collection: Your digital cookbook for saving personal recipes or importing dinner ideas from the web.

No matter what type of container you're using, it always behaves fundamentally the same. Every container can be shared with others, every container stores its items securely, and every container looks somewhat similar.

2. Items

If a Container is the box, the "Item" is what goes inside it.

• In a Storage, an item is a literal physical object like "Milk" with a quantity and expiry date.
• In a Board, an item is a task or a card (e.g., "Fix the sink").
• In a Calendar, an item is an event (e.g., "Doctor's Appointment").
• In SharedPay, an item is an expense (e.g., "Train Tickets", €35.00).
• In a Recipe Collection, an item is a full recipe containing ingredients, steps, and cooking times.

You can often interact with items across different features. For example, a Recipe's ingredients can be added as items into your Storage shopping list!

3. Collaboration & Sharing

Mottainai is built from the ground up to be shared. By default, every container you make is completely private. You can choose to invite others via email or through an invitation link.

When you invite someone to a container, they become a Member. You can control exactly what each member is allowed to do by giving them different Roles:

• Owner: That's usually you. You have full control over the container and can delete it.
• Admin: Can add, edit, or delete items, and can manage other members as well.
• Member: Can add, edit, or delete items normally but cannot manage the container settings or other members.
• Guest: Can only view the container and its items but cannot make any changes.

Because Mottainai updates in real-time instantly, changes made by one member will immediately show up for everyone else viewing the container.

---

That's it! Once you grasp the idea that everything is just Items inside a Container shared with your Contacts, Mottainai becomes incredibly straightforward to use.