pinpal 2025.8.21

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PINPal

A tool for helping you memorize random passwords.

The Problem

Most of the time, we should store our passwords in password managers and not memorize them.

But there are a small number of passwords that you really need to have committed to memory:

• first and foremost, of course, the master password for your password manager
• the PIN code for your bank
• the unlock code for your mobile devices
• the password to the email account where the unlock codes

All of these codes should be rotated at least somewhat regularly, but doing the work of re-memorizing these is super annoying and often we just don't bother.

The Solution

Rather than write down a password and rely on the process of needing to actually unlock your devices, PINPal provides a spaced-repetition prompt to try to help you remember them as you're working on a computer.

Security

Since PINPal's job is to help you manage your most sensitive secrets, it behooves it to treat its data very carefully.

Currently PINPal stores all secrets using the Python keyring module, and gradually forgets the password as you make progress in memorizing it.

Usage

To start memorizing a new secret,

$ pinpal new

and you'll be prompted to label the new secret.

To check up on your secrets and get prompted to recite them, simply run

$ pinpal

You will want to add

pinpal check

to something that is run frequently. I have it in my shell prompt. This will tell you when you need to run pinpal.