Seven shapes. One reflection.
Runs in your browser.
Stress doesn't feel like one thing. It takes shape. ShadowCompass asks seven short questions, tells you which shape fits you right now, and prescribes one breath or vocal exercise for that shape. Two minutes. No account. Nothing leaves your device.
Sovereign by design
Runs entirely in-browser. No account, no login, no server. Your journal lives in local storage on your device.
Grounded in research
Every shape maps to a published shadow pattern — Friedman-Rosenman, Porges, Koob-Volkow, Mani-Shafir, and others. Citations in the app.
Actionable, not analytical
Each result comes with one specific breath or vocal exercise. Two minutes to do. No app to Access to. No professional to book.
MIT · fork it
Every line of code is public and MIT-licensed. Save the HTML to disk. Runs offline forever. Yours.
ShadowCompass is a reflection tool, not a diagnosis. If you're in crisis, contact a qualified professional or emergency services. UK: Samaritans 116 123. US: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
How much does each of these feel like you right now?
Move each slider to how much the statement fits you today. No wrong answers. This isn't a test. It's a mirror.
Your reflection journal
Every sonar result you've kept. Stored locally on this device. Nothing on any server.
What ShadowCompass is
ShadowCompass is a private, browser-native shadow compass. You answer seven short slider questions. It tells you which of seven distinct shadow patterns fits you strongest right now, gives you the published research behind that pattern, and prescribes one specific breath or vocal exercise to try.
That's it. There's no chat, no algorithm learning about you, no account, no telemetry, no cloud storage. The HTML file you're using is the whole app.
Why seven shapes
The shadow takes on distinct geometric characters depending on which body system is dysregulated. Sharp-edged aggression looks different from flatline shutdown, which looks different from spiral-chasing addiction, which looks different from tower-like mask-maintenance.
Each shape corresponds to a specific pattern documented in peer-reviewed stress and shadow research:
- Tetrahedron (Sharp Edge) — chronic sympathetic activation · Friedman & Rosenman (1959), Williams et al. (2000)
- Spiral (Chase) — reward-seeking without completion · Koob & Volkow (2016)
- Sphere (Flood) — gut-brain override, unbounded intake · Dallman et al. (2003)
- Line (Flatline) — parasympathetic collapse · Porges (2011, Polyvagal Theory)
- Cone (Squeeze) — scarcity mindset narrowing executive function · Mani et al. (2013)
- Mirror (Comparison) — social-status pain circuit · Takahashi et al. (2009)
- Tower (Mask) — invulnerability posture · Reinhard et al. (2012)
Why an exercise instead of advice
Advice moves through the thinking mind. The shapes live in the body. So the response is a body practice, not a thought experiment. Each shape has a specific breath or vocal exercise that moves the associated body system in the opposite direction of the drift. Two minutes. No equipment. No professional required.
What the shapes have in common
Every shape softens when someone else is in the room with you.
The exercises help you meet yourself. But every one of the seven shapes is the shape of a system that's been running alone too long. The most powerful correction — for all seven — is connection with another person. ShadowCompass doesn't replace that. It just gives you a two-minute practice you can do while you wait for it, or as you build it.
How it's built
One HTML file. Vanilla JS. IndexedDB for the journal. Service worker for offline. No frameworks, no CDN dependencies, no external requests.
Source: github.com/sjgant80-hub/shadowcompass · MIT-licensed. Fork it. Host it. Save the HTML to your disk. It runs forever without the internet.
What it isn't
- Not a diagnosis
- Not therapy
- Not a substitute for professional care
- Not a crisis service — if you're in crisis, call Samaritans (UK) 116 123 or 988 (US)
Frequently asked
Glossary
- Shape
- A geometric character a shadow pattern takes when it settles in the body. Not a label. Not an identity. A drift you can rotate back.
- Sonar
- The seven-slider diagnostic. Seven statements, seven slides, one dominant shape identified.
- Exercise
- One breath or vocal practice matched to a shape. Two minutes. Body-first, not mind-first.
- Journal
- The local IndexedDB record of every sonar you've kept. Never leaves your device. Exportable to JSON.
- Connection frame
- The one thing all seven shapes share: they're what happens when a system runs alone too long. Every shape softens with another person present.
- Sovereign
- Runs on your device. Nothing leaves. No account. No SaaS lock-in. You own the tool the same way you own a book.