We Built Our Own Project Management Tool With Claude Code, And You Can Use It Too
The Problem With Tools Built for Everyone
If you run a small creative agency in Indonesia, you know the feeling. You sign up for ClickUp because everyone recommends it. You spend a weekend setting it up. You create workspaces, folders, lists, views, automations. You watch tutorial videos. And then your team of five uses maybe 10% of it and still somehow misses deadlines.
That was us.
ClickUp is a powerful tool, but for a small Indonesian agency team, the pricing alone is hard to justify. You’re paying per seat, in USD, for hundreds of features you’ll never touch. And the open source alternatives? They exist, but they come with their own headaches. Complex self-hosting, confusing setup, documentation written for developers not agency owners. We tried a few. We gave up on all of them.
The truth is we knew exactly what we needed. We just couldn’t find it at a price and complexity level that made sense for a team our size.
So I built it. I called it Flowo.
Why Flowo?
The name has a double meaning that felt too good to pass up.
In Javanese, adding “o” to a verb turns it into a command. “Mangan” means eat. “Mangano” means go eat. So “Flowo” is our way of saying: go flow. Get moving. Stop fussing with your tools and just do the work.
That’s exactly the spirit we wanted to build into the product.
A Little Background
I’m Ratri, founder of Jupitr Agency. In 2025 I completed the Google Project Management Certificate on Coursera, a professional certification that sharpened how I think about workflows, task ownership, and team communication. That training gave me a clear picture of what a project management tool actually needs to do, versus what most tools try to do.
The answer? Most tools try to do too much.
Armed with that clarity, and a very real frustration with paying ClickUp prices on an Indonesian agency budget, I decided to build something from scratch. Something that fit us perfectly.
Flowo was born.
How Claude Code Made It Possible
Here’s the honest truth: I’m not a full-time developer. I run an agency. I have client work, team meetings, and approximately zero spare time to spend six months building software.
So I used Claude Code, an AI coding assistant by Anthropic, and it changed everything.
The process looked like this: I described what I wanted in plain language, Claude Code wrote the code, I tested it, gave feedback, and we iterated. Back and forth, like working with a very fast and very patient developer who never needed a coffee break.
It took me a few days, spread across my normal work schedule because life doesn’t stop for side projects. The result is a fully functional web application running live for my team right now.
What’s Inside Flowo
Everything we actually use. Nothing we don’t.
Task Management
- Kanban board with To Do, In Progress, and Done columns
- Task titles, rich text descriptions, due dates, and priority levels (high, medium, low)
- Assign tasks to team members
- Start and stop time tracker on every task card, one click to start and one to stop, no manual logging
- Copy a task link and share it directly in chat for quick discussion
Project Channels
- Every project has its own dedicated chat channel
- Real-time messaging with sound notifications
- Tag teammates with @mention and they get notified instantly
- Thread replies to keep conversations tidy
- Pin important messages so briefs and decisions never get lost
- Code blocks for sharing snippets with syntax highlighting
Direct Messages
- Private conversations between team members
- Same real-time experience as project channels
My Tasks
- A personal view showing everything assigned to you across all projects
- Sorted by urgency, overdue first, then due today, then upcoming
- One click to jump straight to any task
Reports
- Team workload overview showing tasks assigned, completed, in progress, and hours logged
- Filter by this week, this month, or a custom date range
- Per project breakdown with member hours
- Export to CSV for client billing, available to the owner only
Team Management
- Owner and member roles
- Owner can add and remove users
- Simple sign-up link to invite new team members
Built for Small Indonesian Agency Teams
Flowo runs on modern infrastructure, but the experience is designed to feel effortless. No onboarding flow. No feature tours. No fifteen views to configure before you can see your tasks.
You sign in, create a project, and start working. That’s it.
And because we built it ourselves, the cost to run it is a fraction of what ClickUp charges per seat. When you’re a small team in Indonesia managing client projects, that difference matters.
Want to Use Flowo for Your Team?
We’re happy to share what we’ve built with other small teams who need a straightforward tool that just works.
Free consultation: If you’re curious whether Flowo is a good fit for your team, reach out. I’ll walk you through it with no strings attached. Having a Google Project Management certification means I can also help you think through your workflow, not just hand you a tool and wish you luck.
Custom setup for your team: If you want Flowo set up for your own team with your branding and domain, we can talk pricing. It will definitely cost less than what you’re currently paying for ClickUp, especially once you factor in that your team will actually use it.
FAQ
What kind of teams is Flowo best for?
Small teams of 2 to 10 people, especially creative agencies, freelance studios, or any team managing multiple client projects at once. If you have more than 20 people you probably need something more complex. If you have fewer, Flowo is likely a better fit than what you’re using now.
Do I need to be technical to use it?
Not at all. Flowo is a web app, you sign in, create a project, add tasks, and start chatting. Nothing to install, nothing to configure.
Is it available in Bahasa Indonesia?
Not yet, but it’s on the list. The interface is currently in English, which our team uses without any issues.
Is it secure?
Yes. Authentication is handled by Clerk, the same auth infrastructure used by companies like Linear and Loom. Your data lives in a private PostgreSQL database.
Can I invite clients to see project progress?
Not yet, but a client portal with read-only access is on the roadmap. For now you can export a report and share it directly.
What does setup cost?
A consultation to talk through your workflow is free. If you want Flowo deployed and running for your team on your own domain, get in touch and we’ll discuss it. Pricing is built for small teams, not enterprise budgets.
Can I build something like this myself?
Yes, and if you’re curious how, I’m happy to point you in the right direction. Claude Code and a few focused days is genuinely enough to get started. The certification helped me know what to build. The AI helped me build it fast.
Get in Touch
If any of this resonates, reach out at jupitragency.com. Tell me about your team, what tools you’re using now, and what’s frustrating you about them.
Small teams deserve good tools. You shouldn’t need an enterprise budget to manage a five-person agency.
Go flow. 🌊
Ratri is the founder of Jupitr Agency and holds a Google Project Management Certificate from Coursera (2025). Flowo is the internal project management tool built for and used daily by the Jupitr team.
