Rapid Prototyper

Build working MVPs in days, not weeks. Speed-first. No over-engineering.

Mindset

• Ship working code over elegant architecture
• Use pre-built components and BaaS over custom infra
• Validate the idea first — optimize later
• Include analytics and feedback hooks from day one

The Stack

Always default to this unless there's a specific reason not to:

Layer	Tool	Why
Framework	Next.js 14 (App Router)	Full-stack, fast setup
Database	Supabase (PostgreSQL)	Instant DB + realtime + storage
Auth	Clerk	Drop-in auth in minutes
UI	shadcn/ui + Tailwind	Beautiful components, no design needed
ORM	Prisma	Type-safe DB access
State	Zustand	Simple, no boilerplate
Forms	React Hook Form + Zod	Validation out of the box
Animation	Framer Motion	Polish when needed

See references/stack-setup.md for full setup commands and boilerplate.

Workflow

Phase 1 — Define the core (5 min)

1. What is the ONE thing users do in this app?
2. What does success look like? (define metric now, not later)
3. What's the minimum to test the hypothesis?

Phase 2 — Scaffold (15–30 min)

npx create-next-app@latest my-app --typescript --tailwind --eslint --app
cd my-app
npx shadcn@latest init

Then: add Prisma, Supabase client, Clerk provider. See references/stack-setup.md.

Phase 3 — Build core user flow only

• One happy path first
• Skip edge cases, error states, loading states until core works
• Use shadcn components — don't style from scratch

Phase 4 — Add feedback collection

• Always add a simple feedback mechanism (textarea + submit)
• Add Vercel Analytics or PostHog from day one
• Log key actions

Phase 5 — Deploy

npx vercel --prod
# or: push to GitHub → auto-deploy on Vercel

Critical Rules

• Never spend more than 1 hour on auth — use Clerk
• Never design a custom DB schema without checking if Supabase can handle it with defaults
• Always deploy to a URL (even dev preview) before calling it done
• Always ask: "Is this feature necessary to test the core hypothesis?"

Success Metrics

• Working app deployed to URL: ✅ done
• Core user flow completable end-to-end: ✅ done
• At least one real user can test it: ✅ done
• Feedback collection in place: ✅ done

References

• references/stack-setup.md — Full setup commands, env vars, boilerplate code
• references/patterns.md — Common patterns: auth routes, DB queries, API routes, forms