QuirkIDE Get the app
Quirki, a small crimson ink blot with gold eyes, breathing and blinking

A code editor for Windows, with a teacher inside

It learns your quirks.

A code editor that teaches you while you build real projects, and makes sure you own every line.

Free to start. The full bank of 202 projects costs A$49, paid once.

The browser version opens at launch. Leave your email below and we will tell you.

Quirki walks over to line 4 and asks one question. The fix stays yours to type.

Learns you

Quirk watches how you work and changes how it helps.

Real projects

202 projects, from a first program to a full online store.

Yours to own

You write it, you understand it, and you can explain every line.

01 · The almost right problem

AI can write the code. Can you read it?

Ask a chatbot for a login page and you get 200 lines in seconds. It runs. A week later it breaks, and you have to fix code you have never read.

Working developers hit this wall. People learning to code hit it harder, because they cannot tell code that works from code that looks like it works.

Quirk teaches you to read, write and fix code yourself. Then you can judge what the AI hands you.

66%

of developers say AI gives them code that is almost right, but not quite.1

50%

quiz score for junior engineers who learned a new coding library with AI help. Engineers who wrote the code by hand scored 67%, and the biggest gap was in debugging.2

17%

lower exam scores for high school students who practised with open access to GPT-4, once the AI was gone. A tutor that gave hints and held back answers avoided the drop.3

Quirk is for you if

  • You are teaching yourself or changing careersYou want skills an interviewer can test, and projects you can explain line by line.
  • You are a studentYou need to pass exams where no AI is allowed in the room.
  • You build with AIYou ship apps with AI help and want to understand what it wrote before your users find the bugs.
  • You finished the tutorials and still freezeYou can follow a video, but a blank file stops you. Quirk gives you real projects and the one piece you are missing, then lets you write the rest.

Sources

  1. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, AI section, more than 49,000 respondents.
  2. Anthropic, randomised trial on AI help and coding skills, January 2026, 52 engineers.
  3. Bastani and others, PNAS, 2025, about 1,000 high school maths students.

02 · How Quirk teaches

A teacher that watches how you work

Quirk lives inside the editor. It learns how you learn, then gives you the smallest piece that gets you moving again.

  1. It watches

    Pauses, deletes, second guesses, pastes, clicks, errors, and the places you get stuck. Quirk measures each one against your own pace.

  2. It learns how you learn

    Quirk tracks 245 concepts and how well you know each one. It tries six kinds of explanation, from trace tables to analogies, and keeps the ones that get you unstuck fastest.

  3. It helps one piece at a time

    Quirk works out which piece you are missing on this step and gives you that piece. You write the rest.

  4. You type every line

    The most help Quirk gives is a walkthrough you follow and type yourself. It never pastes finished code into your file.

Six levels of help

Quirk starts at the smallest help and climbs when you stay stuck or ask for more.

  1. LEVEL 0QuietYou are making progress, so Quirki stays out of your way.
  2. LEVEL 1A nudgeOne line that names the next piece: Next piece: a for-each loop.
  3. LEVEL 2Name the pieceAn explanation of that piece in the format that works for you: a diagram, an analogy or a trace table.
  4. LEVEL 3Show the shapeThe shape of the line, such as for (const n of names) { }. You still type it.
  5. LEVEL 4Point at the spotQuirki walks over and points at the exact line.
  6. LEVEL 5Walk through itEvery move in order, and you type each one. Quirk goes no further than this.

You choose where help starts. Quick mode gives bigger pieces when you are short on time.

Is this yours?

Pasted code gets a friendly question

Quirk notices code you did not type: a big paste, a block that lands faster than you type, or an AI suggestion you accepted. It marks that code as not yet yours and asks about one line.

Answer it and the code counts as yours. Quirk will not block you or accuse you, and when you know more than it expected, it learns from that too.

Is this yours?

What does this line do?

total = total + item.price * item.qty;
  • A for-each loop visits every item in a list, one at a time, running the same lines for each.
  • Accumulating builds a running total by adding each item to a number that starts at 0.
  • Filtering makes a new list that keeps only the items that pass a test.
  • A counter is a number that starts at 0 and goes up by one each time something happens.
Lines 2 to 6 of cartTotal arrived in one paste. Quirki asks what line 4 does and offers four answers.

Judge the AI

Practise spotting code that only looks right

A tool suggests a change, and you decide whether to accept it. If you reject it, you point at the line with the problem. Some suggestions are fine. Others hide a flaw that passes a quick look: a loop that runs one step too far, a password check that lets everyone in, a secret key shipped inside the web page.

Every drill is written and tested by hand, so no AI runs and nothing leaves your computer. After each answer, Quirk shows you why, and Quirki points at the flaw when there is one. Quirk also learns how well you review code.

Judge the AI

A tool suggested this change. Is it safe to accept?

  • Accept
  • Reject
  • Not sure, explain
A suggested change swaps a loop over the names for a counting loop that runs while i is less than or equal to names.length, one step too far. Quirki asks whether the change is safe to accept.

03 · Meet Quirki

A small ink blot with gold eyes

Quirki is the part of Quirk you see. It talks to you in words that fit how you learn, and it has a few habits of its own.

Quirki pointing to the right

It points at your bug

When you need help, Quirki walks across the window to the exact line and points at it.

Quirki asleep under a blanket with a snot bubble

It naps on the job

Keep Quirki on screen and it wanders while you work. Go quiet for a few minutes and it naps under a blanket with a snot bubble. It keeps watching while it sleeps.

Choose your Quirki

  • Red Blot Default A drop of red ink from the textbook, with little splats.
  • Pink Blot Red Blot in soft pink, with white eyes.

04 · The project bank

202 projects, from a first program to a full online store

Each project lives in real files on your computer. Every milestone comes with checks that run against your work, and Quirk tells you when you are ready for the next tier.

JavaScript, Python, HTML and CSS, across 26 categories: games, music, money, browser extensions, APIs, databases, compilers and more.

  1. Tier 1 · First stepsSay your name · A button that says hi · Roll a die
  2. Tier 2 · BeginnerClick counter · Rock paper scissors judge · Password strength
  3. Tier 3 · BeginnerTimes table maker · Fizz buzz · Recipe scaler
  4. Tier 4 · BeginnerContact book · Canvas house · Morse code
  5. Tier 5 · IntermediateTo-do app · Quiz game · Budget tracker
  6. Tier 6 · IntermediateKanban board with drag and drop · Markdown previewer · REST API with node:http
  7. Tier 7 · IntermediateChat room over WebSockets · Snake with a real game loop · URL shortener API
  8. Tier 8 · AdvancedLogin with hashed passwords and sessions · Spreadsheet with formulas · Rate limiter
  9. Tier 9 · AdvancedStatic site generator · Git-like snapshots for a folder · A regex engine of your own
  10. Tier 10 · ProfessionalA full online store · Booking system · A programming language with closures

Dream a project

Type any idea, such as a booking page for a dog groomer. Quirk works out the pieces you are missing, puts them in order, groups them into milestones and points you to the closest projects in the bank. You write every piece. In a hurry? Quick mode gets you there with fewer detours.

05 · A real editor

A real code editor, with a teacher inside

QuirkIDE is built on Code-OSS, an open source code editor with the full toolkit of a professional editor. You learn on real tools, and you can keep QuirkIDE after you stop needing hints.

  • Git built inClone, commit, branch, pull and push from the side bar.
  • A terminalRun your programs and your tests without leaving the editor.
  • A debuggerSet breakpoints, step through your code and watch values change.
  • ExtensionsThemes, languages and linters from the Open VSX registry.
  • The everyday toolsAutocomplete, Emmet, search, multi-cursor editing and the command palette.
  • No AI assistant until you add oneQuirkIDE ships without one. Install one from Open VSX when you want it, and Quirk will ask about the suggestions you accept.

06 · Your data

What Quirk learns stays on your computer

Quirk has to watch how you work to help you. You stay in charge of everything it keeps.

Read the privacy policy

  • It lives on your computerQuirk keeps your learning profile on your own machine and sends none of it to us.
  • Counts and timings, never your codeThe profile holds numbers about how you work and what you know. It stores none of your code text.
  • We never sell itWe earn our money from the price you pay, and we sell no data to anyone.
  • You can see, fix, export or delete itOpen What Quirk knows about you to read your profile, correct it, save a copy, or delete all of it with one button.
  • Telemetry is offQuirkIDE sends us no usage data.

07 · Pricing

Start free. Pay once when you want the whole bank.

Free

Start free

A$0

The gauge and the first steps of every Tier 1 project.

Pay once, keep it

Full bank

A$49 once

All 202 projects, the desktop app, and every new project added to the bank.

Payments are not switched on yet. Nothing will charge your card.

Schools

Classes

Talk to us

A teacher dashboard, classes and progress reports. In the works

Prices in Australian dollars. Refunds within 14 days, no questions. See the full pricing page

08 · Questions

Questions people ask

Is Quirk for complete beginners?

Yes. Tier 1 starts with a program that prints your name. A five-minute gauge at the start reads your level, so if you already code, Quirk starts you further up.

I already build with AI. Is Quirk for me?

Yes. Quirk teaches the concepts you need to read, judge and fix AI code, from loops and functions up to architecture and design. Paste AI code into a project and Quirk asks you to explain it, so you find the gaps in what you know.

Does Quirk use AI?

Quirk's teaching engine runs on your computer and uses no language model. It decides what to teach from how you work, and Quirki's words come from explanations written for learners.

QuirkIDE ships with no AI assistant. You can install one from Open VSX, and Quirk will ask about the suggestions you accept.

Will Quirk write code for me?

No. The most help Quirk gives is a step by step walkthrough that you type. It never pastes a solution into your file.

Can I buy it for my child?

QuirkIDE is made for adults for now, so its projects and help assume an adult learner. A parent or guardian has to buy it for anyone under 18. Quirk keeps its learning profile on your computer, and its data notice asks anyone under 16 to read it with a parent or carer.

Does it run on a Mac or Linux?

Not yet. QuirkIDE runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. Mac and Linux versions are on the plan, and the browser workspace runs on any computer with a modern browser.

Is the A$49 a subscription?

No. You pay once and keep the full bank, including every project we add to it later.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. Ask within 14 days of paying and we refund you in full, no questions. See the terms.

Does Quirk send my data anywhere?

No. Quirk keeps what it learns on your computer, and QuirkIDE has telemetry switched off. If we add sync in a later version, it will stay off until you turn it on.

Will Windows warn me when I install it?

It might. Until QuirkIDE is code signed, Windows SmartScreen can show a warning the first time you open it. The download page shows the exact clicks.

Quirki cheering with both arms up

Own your code. Then judge the AI.

Download QuirkIDE, take the five-minute gauge, and start the project that fits you.

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