Brave, explained for grown-ups.

The idea in one paragraph

Brave turns your kid’s hardest recurring moment — pump sites, CGM sensors, shots, finger pokes — into something they run instead of something done to them. The app is honest (“this might pinch for a second”), hands your kid the controls (they press GO, not you), and rewards showing up with a gem every single time. Crying doesn’t cost a gem. Nothing about glucose numbers is ever scored. The gems grow collectible creatures called Pips, and the collection becomes a visible record of every time your kid was scared and did it anyway.

Getting set up

1. Join the Family Pass at patreon.com/nohitterlabs (one membership covers your whole household).
2. Open brave.nohitterlabs.com on the device your kid will use and tap Sign in with Patreon. You’ll do this about once a month per device.
3. Install it like an app. On iPhone/iPad: tap the Share button in Safari, then “Add to Home Screen.” On Android: tap the menu (⋮) in Chrome, then “Add to home screen” or “Install app.” After this it launches full-screen and works offline.
4. First-time setup asks for your kid’s first name, age, and birthday month and day — never a year. That’s the whole form, and it stays on the device.

What a brave moment looks like

Tap the big button and the app walks your kid through five beats. One: pick what’s happening — pump site, CGM sensor, shot, or finger poke. The app tells the truth about each one in kid language. Two: pick a superpower — balloon breaths, a countdown, or a super squeeze. Same ritual every time is fine; rituals are the point. Three: the GO button. This one matters: wait for your kid to press it, even when you’re running late. Control is the single biggest fear-reducer there is. Four: while you do the actual site work, a silly seek-and-find game keeps busy eyes busy — active distraction measurably lowers procedural pain and fear. Five: the gem, with confetti. Then an optional feelings check — and the gem is never withheld based on the answer.

Pips: how the collection works

Gems grow the active Pip through five stages — Egg, Hatchling, Kid, Soar, and finally Legend, where the Pip gets its full trading-card moment. The first brave moment always hatches the egg (day one should feel magical). When a Pip reaches Legend, your kid picks a new egg from a choice of three, and the grown one joins the collection forever. There are 200 Pips: commons, rares, ultra rares… and one Super Amazing Ultra Rare somewhere in the deck. We won’t spoil which, and we’d gently suggest you don’t look it up — the not-knowing is fuel for a lot of brave moments. Rarer Pips take more gems to grow, which kids universally decide is fair.

The grown-up corner

Press and hold the small “grown-ups” link on the home screen for about two seconds (the hold is the child gate). Inside you’ll find evidence-informed comfort tips for site day, a place to update your kid’s name, age, or birthday, and the Data panel — which deserves its own section.

Your kid’s data, and why it can’t be lost

Three layers protect the collection. On the device: everything Brave knows lives in protected browser storage, mirrored to a second, tougher store that survives most browser cleanups — the Data panel shows “Protected storage: ON” when the browser has promised not to auto-delete. In the cloud: because you sign in with Patreon, the Pip collection and current Pip’s progress sync automatically to your Family Pass — the panel says so plainly when it’s working. Lost phone, new tablet, grandma’s iPad: sign in, and the whole collection walks back in the door, legendary included. This is also the only data our systems can see — not names, not moments, not feelings, and never anything glucose. In your hands: “Download a backup” saves a dated file you keep; “Restore from a backup” brings one back. Worth doing after big milestones, and it’s the belt to the cloud’s suspenders.

Adding a new device (or replacing a lost one)

Open brave.nohitterlabs.com on the new device and sign in with Patreon. Brave will ask for your kid’s name, age, and birthday again — that’s expected, not a glitch. Those details live only on each device (they’re never uploaded, so they can’t follow you), and re-typing them takes fifteen seconds. The moment setup finishes, the good stuff arrives on its own: the whole Pip collection, the current Pip, and its exact gem count come down from your Family Pass automatically — with a little confetti for the reunion. Same story on grandma’s tablet, a replacement phone, or the family computer: sign in, quick setup, everybody’s back.

Little things worth knowing

The 🔊 chip on the home screen mutes or unmutes all sounds and remembers your choice. On your kid’s birthday (month and day), the app quietly celebrates. Multiple devices are expected — sign in on each, the collection follows. And Brave works completely offline once installed; site changes at the cabin count double.

Troubleshooting

The sign-in screen appears even though we’re members: the monthly session likely expired — tap Sign in with Patreon and you’re back in about ten seconds. If Patreon says the account doesn’t have an active Family Pass, check that your membership is active on patreon.com. The app looks out of date: close the app fully and reopen it once or twice; updates install in the background and switch over on the next launch. New device: sign in, redo the quick name-and-birthday setup (those stay per-device on purpose), and the collection syncs down by itself. Anything else: the contact page reaches the person who built it.