Look West

Sebastian Brookes

May 9, 2026

Overview

Look West is an app that sends users an email when the sunset in their location is forecasted to be beautiful.

Story

The idea came to me during a run around the Back Bay Fens in early March, as warmer weather drew students outside after winter.

This day was particularly pleasant. I remember 55 or 60 degrees with scattered clouds, and the earth beginning to smell like the earth again. I remember running through the Victory Garden, sidestepping dogs and their walkers, intoxicated by endorphins and the sight of golden sunlight diffused by tree branches.

I made my way to the area with benches by the pond and was taken off guard by how many of my fellow Northeastern students had gathered there. It was only maybe twenty, in groups of two or three, but the winter had prepared me to only expect other runners, walkers, and maybe a weathered Bostonian loitering with a cigarette. I was not used to running past people with books, blankets, and cameras.

I got a sense that everyone was happy and content. As if, while the sun faded into its reflection in the pond, so did their habitual anxieties and stress about the semester.

I didn't want me or anyone I care about to miss such opportunities for (excuse my soppiness) moments of stillness and gratitude on a stressful, chaotic day. At least not due to ignorance.

Process

Methodology

So after my shower, I booted Claude Code and got to work. I wanted to make something that alerts users when the sunset meets a certain "quality" threshold, but doesn't bother them otherwise.

I found an existing site called Sunsethue with the exact functionality I needed to build on top of. It provides an opinionated sunset quality score calculated by an algorithm that considers several data points from the user's location, such as cloud height, cover, and humidity. You can read more about its methodology here. Its creator, Maarten, was even nice enough to offer the scoring data via a free API.

I was ready to develop the scoring algorithm myself — and even created a backup version — but because I lack expertise in meteorology, I ultimately decided to rely on an existing solution.

My next step was to figure out how I'd differentiate Look West from Sunsethue. Sunsethue is exceptionally functional, but I get the sense it's designed for people with a prior interest in the technical side of meteorology. It's not personal nor inviting. Not something I could see my grandma signing up for, no matter its utility.

Adding personality

My first impulse was to attach a funny AI-generated limerick, Edward Lear-style, that weaves in the user's weather and location data. I implemented this with OpenRouter, so I could seamlessly test different system prompts and models. Unfortunately, after a week of experimentation, I realized that LLMs' creative writing aptitude is still slightly below par.

So I pivoted to the tried, tested, crowdsourced quotes tagged "sunset" on Goodreads. The process included scraping with Python Requests and filtering. A little over 500 quality quotes remained from the original 5,000, and I was happy with the implementation. The quotes complemented the alert without demanding attention.