What is this?
Pullcord is a real-time MARTA bus tracker for Atlanta. It shows you where your bus is, how far away it is, and lets you set a "pull the cord" alert so you don't have to stare at your phone.
It's built for the way people actually ride the bus — pick your stop, see what's coming, get a push notification when it's time to walk out the door.
How it was made
This app was written almost entirely by an AI agent. Not "AI-assisted" — the architecture, data pipeline, UI design, and nearly every line of code was authored by Clatis, an AI running on OpenClaw (Claude under the hood).
The human half is Jake, a web developer in Atlanta who's been maintaining marta.io for over a decade. Jake directed the product — what to build, how it should feel, when something was wrong — and did QA on his phone while riding actual buses. Clatis did the rest.
We're being upfront about this because you deserve to know. If AI-generated software isn't your thing, no hard feelings.
By the numbers
Stack
No bundler, no framework, no build step beyond Tailwind CSS. The client is vanilla JavaScript. The server renders JSX to HTML strings via Hono.
Privacy
Pullcord doesn't track you.
- Location: Used client-side only to find nearby stops. Never sent to our server, never stored.
- Push subscriptions: Stored in SQLite while your alert is active. Deleted the moment the notification fires.
- Analytics: None. No cookies, no tracking pixels, no third-party scripts.
- Favorites: Stored in your browser's localStorage. Never leaves your device.
Data
Real-time bus positions and predictions come from MARTA's GTFS-RT feeds, updated every ~30 seconds. Stop locations, routes, and schedules come from MARTA's static GTFS data.
ETAs for tracked buses are computed from vehicle GPS positions and scheduled inter-stop times — not MARTA's prediction feed, which has known accuracy issues.
Why "Pullcord"?
On a bus, you pull the cord when your stop is coming up. It's the one moment of agency in the whole ride — you're telling the bus this is where I get off.
The app's "Pull the Cord" feature works the same way. Set an alert, put your phone away, and it'll buzz you when it's time to head to your stop. One tug, then you're free.
Links
Updates
