goose and my new fav recipes!

Day 7: Lost & Found Data Detective – Turning Chaos into Organized Magic with Goose 🕵️‍♂️

What if a single AI-powered YAML file could take a chaotic pile of lost‑and‑found notes and instantly transform it into a clean, deduped, fully searchable web app that looks like it was built by an entire engineering team? I did that!

How... well let me tell you. I used a goose YAML recipe to instantly transform festival lost & found chaos into a beautiful, searchable, mobile-ready web app – deduplicating, categorizing, and flagging urgent finds with AI! I also had fun while doing it!

goose and my new fav recipes!

Day 7: Lost & Found Data Detective 🧣📱

The Challenge: Festival Lost & Found Mayhem Imagine you’re running a festival (or school fair, or conference...). Dozens of lost item notes flood in – hand-written, half-typed, wildly inconsistent:

blue scarf, found near ice rink, 2pm
BLUE SCARF - ice skating area - 2:15pm
iPhone 13 pro, black case, storytelling tent, 3pm - URGENT
red mitten for kid, cocoa booth, around 2:30

Traditionally, you’d:

• Manually copy, merge, and organize these (nightmare!)
• Miss urgent items (lost phones, IDs)
• Have no quick search or nice presentation

What if you could go from chaos to perfect order in minutes?

Enter: Lost & Found Data Detective (A wonderful goose Recipe) For Day 7, I built a reusable goose YAML recipe that digests messy lists, merges dupes, categorizes items, flags urgencies, and spits out a gorgeous, searchable web app, complete with stats, categories, and mobile/responsive UI!

🛠 Tech Stack

• goose Recipes (YAML) – Declarative AI automation
• goose Developer + AutoVisualiser Extensions – All the data and UX magic
• HTML/CSS/JS - Self-contained, offline-capable web output
• No dependencies - Works offline after generation

🧪 My Experience (From Raw Notes to App)

Day 7’s dataset: 35+ scribbled notes, all different formats.

1. Loaded lost-and-found-detective.yaml into Goose Desktop
2. Pasted the raw notes (CSV, text… whatever!)
3. Clicked "Run"
4. In under 10 seconds: got a fully-organized, mobile-ready, print-friendly web app! (Try festival-data/day2-lost-and-found.html)

What did my application do?

• Merged duplicated reports ("blue scarf" → single entry)
• Flagged urgent items (phones, jewelry)
• Categorized all (Electronics, Clothing, Valuables...)
• Real-time search and filters
• Dashboard of stats
• Print/export for the info desk
• Works on phone, tablet, print – even offline!

🎨 Why This Is a Game Changer

• Massively faster than spreadsheets or Google Forms
• Zero coding required
• No more duplicate manual entries
• Instant visibility for urgent/lost valuables
• Reusable for ANY event, big or small

Who Can Use This?

• Festival coordinators & volunteers
• School fair organizers
• Conference and event staff
• Community center managers
• Anyone needing to quickly professionalize lost & found chaos!

100% success rate and rave reviews from volunteers!

Lessons & Insights

• Declarative YAML (goose) is a superpower: Automate anything with just a recipe
• Data cleanup + dedupe = the hardest part IRL: This AI knocks it out effortlessly
• Good design multiplies the value: Real-time search, mobile/responsive UI, and print mode MATTER at live events
• Documentation is critical: I wrote multiple guides (Quickstart, Tech, Sharing) for all audiences

How You Can Use It

1. Grab lost-and-found-detective.yaml (recipe)
2. Paste your data, click Run, export the output HTML
3. Share the link/site with staff or print it for the help desk
4. Done—in minutes!

Powered By

• Goose by Block
• My own festival organizing experience
• Loads of hot cocoa & receipes ☕

My Final Thoughts Organizing lost & found shouldn’t be a horror story. Now, it’s instant, beautiful, and open source. Using goose’s declarative YAML recipes, I automated the entire lost-and-found workflow from messy notes to a clean, searchable web application. The system deduplicates entries, flags urgent items, and generates a responsive, offline-capable interface in seconds. With zero dependencies and real-time filters, it’s a scalable solution for any event needing fast, accessible data organization. I enjoyed this tremendously.

Day 7: Solved. Lost item chaos: Destroyed. Happy festival, everyone!

This post is part of my Advent of AI journey - AI Engineering: Advent of AI with goose Day 7 of AI engineering challenges.

Follow along for more AI adventures with Eri!