Ask The Deck is a free tarot reading made by one person. It exists because I wanted to mix code with something that doesn't quite belong to code. No reading is stored under your name, and nobody pays to be here.
What it costs
Each reading costs about $0.003 in API calls to the language model behind the scenes. I've put $20 into DeepSeek credits so far. Hosting runs on Cloudflare's free tier — zero, for now. I cover all of it.
What donations do — and don't do
They cover API calls and, eventually, hosting when traffic outgrows the free tier. They buy me time to keep maintaining and improving this.
They don't unlock anything. There's no premium tier. Readings aren't more accurate for donors. No priority queue, no exclusive deck, no "thank you" email worth your inbox.
Other ways
If donating isn't your thing, sharing a reading or sending feedback also helps.
About the name
"Ask The Deck" is a reference to "Ask the Dust" by John Fante — a novel about Arturo Bandini trying to establish himself as a writer, wrestling with creative ambition and the reality of finishing projects. The name is intentional: just as Arturo asked the dust, here we ask the cards. Both are ways of talking to something larger when we need clarity.
I wrote about building this project and finishing something for the first time in years:
Read: The Project I Didn't Abandon →
Get in touch
Questions, bugs, ideas — write to: felipe@debene.dev