AI packing list — from empty bag to full pack in ten seconds
Type the trip name, the dates and the kids' ages. FamilyBoard generates a complete packing list tuned to weather, length and who's coming.
It's Thursday evening, you're leaving for the mountains on Saturday morning, and there's an empty suitcase on the bed. Olle needs his helmet — yes. Thermal trousers — do they still fit? Hugo's grown out of his ski boots since last year. And sunglasses. Sun cream. The kind that works in cold. You start typing into your phone and realise you made the exact same list back in January, but it's gone now.
Today we're shipping AI packing list in FamilyBoard. Type the trip name, the dates and who's coming. Ten seconds later you have a complete packing list, tuned to where you're going, how long you're staying, and how old the kids are.
What it is
Lists → + New list → Packing list (AI). Three fields:
- Trip name (e.g. Åre, ski week 2026)
- Dates (start and end)
- Who's coming — FamilyBoard pulls the kids' ages from your family
Hit Generate. Within ten seconds you have a complete packing list, grouped by category:
- Clothes per person — sized to the season and destination
- Shoes and outerwear
- Toiletries
- Medication and first aid — including the things that are easily forgotten (plasters, antacids)
- Tech (chargers, adaptor, headphones)
- Activity-specific (skis, swimwear, wellies)
- Documents (passports, vaccination certs if relevant)
The list is a regular FamilyBoard list — so the whole family can tick items off in real time. Mia packs the kids in the bedroom, Olle packs the shared kit in the hallway. Both see what's done.
Why we built it
We talked to 30 parents about packing for trips. The pattern was the same:
- You always realise something's missing the day after you arrive
- You make the same list every trip because you can't find the old one
- You make it alone, even though two adults are packing
- It lives on a post-it, an SMS to yourself, or in your head
AI packing list takes care of the first 80% of that work. You don't start from blank. You start from a serious, feels-complete list that you adjust — "we don't need sunglasses, it's February in Norrland", tick off. "We also need Olle's inhaler", add it.
How it works under the hood
A Supabase edge function called generate_packing_list sends your input to gpt-4o-mini with a structured output schema. The model also gets:
- The season (from the dates)
- A short note about the destination if it's a known one (Åre, Mallorca, Tokyo)
- Your family makeup (number of adults, number of kids, ages)
Output is JSON we parse into a real list. The category structure is fixed — the model can't invent new categories — so every generated list looks the same to you.
We don't store your input beyond the call. No tracking dataset, no model training on your destinations.
The free plan gets 3 generations per month. Premium has no limit.
Trade-offs we made on purpose
Free-text input only. You can't say "we already have thermal kit" — you have to tick it off afterwards. We tried checkbox prompts in the prototype and nobody used them.
No live weather. We looked at pulling actual forecasts from met.no or smhi.se at generation time, but forecasts beyond 5 days are too uncertain to add value. The model knows Åre in February is cold; that's enough.
No merging with old lists. Every generation is a fresh list. We think every trip is its own context.
Try it
AI packing list is in the iOS app from today (TestFlight), and on familyboard.io from week 19. Make a new list, choose Packing list (AI), fill in three fields. Ten seconds later, remembering the sun cream stops being your job — it's the list's.
This is the feature we've used the most ourselves during development. Personally, I've forgotten at least three things per trip for the last ten years. This week I forgot nothing. That's worth a blog post.