SketchScript Has Closed
SketchScript turned meeting transcripts into hand-drawn sketchnote visualizations using AI. It was a fun build and people enjoyed using it, but it wasn't viable as a SaaS product.
The image generation behind SketchScript is open source. If you use Claude Code, you can plug it straight in and create sketchnotes, diagrams, illustrations — whatever you need.
What SketchScript Did
Paste any transcript. Get a hand-drawn visual summary in under two minutes.
Dual Coding Theory
Text alone gives you ~10% recall after three days. Add visuals and it jumps to 65%. SketchScript made that accessible without needing artistic skill or a graphic recorder.
How It Worked
Claude analysed transcripts and designed the visual layout. Gemini generated the sketchnote images. Each model handled what it was best at — reasoning for structure, image generation for rendering.
Any Transcript
Meetings, YouTube videos, podcasts, lectures — anything with a transcript became a visual summary. The Pickaxe-hosted version needed no downloads or setup.
Why It Closed
The per-generation costs didn't scale. Each sketchnote required an LLM analysis pass plus an image generation call, and the audience stayed small. The product worked — the business model didn't.
Not every good idea is a good product. SketchScript validated that AI-generated sketchnotes are genuinely useful. It also showed that wrapping a prompt pipeline in a SaaS layer adds cost without adding enough value over just giving people the pipeline.
Build It Yourself
The same prompt engineering and style system that powered SketchScript, available as a Claude Code skill you can install and use directly.
View on GitHub