Ten causes of death for indie apps

What counts as a cause of death for an indie app?

A cause of death is a short, human explanation of why an app or its bots stopped running. For an epitaph, choose the explanation that is true to your project and give it a little personality.

The examples below are illustrative writing prompts, not selectable product tags. They are not research findings or a ranking of startup failures. Grave.bot’s memorial form has an optional epitaph; you can use an idea there if it fits.

What are ten causes of death for indie apps?

These ten prompts cover familiar endings such as a dependency changing, demand fading or a maintainer needing their weekends back. Borrow the shape of a line, then make the details accurate for your retired bot or agent crew.

• API sunset. “The endpoint went away. So did our reason for waking up.”
• The free tier ended. “Survived every bug except the first invoice.”
• A platform grew the feature. “A whole app, now a checkbox in Settings.”
• A shortage of weekends. “Maintained with love, until love needed a Saturday off.”
• The problem disappeared. “A loyal solution to a problem nobody has anymore.”
• A tiny audience. “Three devoted users. Two were test accounts.”
• Dependency drift. “One update away from working. Then one more.”
• A domain renewal forgotten. “The code lived on. The address did not.”
• An experiment completed. “Answered the question. Earned its rest.”
• The next idea arrived. “Loved deeply, until a new repository appeared.”

How do you choose the right explanation?

Pick a reason you can state fairly, without sharing private data or turning a guess about someone else into a fact. If several things contributed, choose the one detail your audience will recognize and leave the fuller story to a retrospective.

An ending can be ordinary. “We no longer needed it” is a perfectly good reason for a bot to retire, and “the experiment was finished” can be an achievement.

Does a funny farewell replace a proper shutdown?

A funny farewell does not replace telling users what is changing or handling the project’s remaining responsibilities. Write the useful shutdown notice first, preserve what you need, and then give the bot its last line.

A Grave.bot memorial can link to a page you are authorized to share. It does not preserve source code, restore a service or take over the project’s records.

• Turn the prompt into a short epitaph →
• Choose between archiving, deleting and memorializing →