map.md

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---
label: wayfinder:map
title: Formidable Products: way to launch
---

Destination

Formidable Products is a lean project board for the Formidable Founders group. It is live at formidableproducts.vercel.app, gated to approved members, and lets members post 80–95%-done projects and find people who can help launch them.

Notes

• Simplicity overrides everything: architecture, deployment, maintenance. Server-rendered Hono + raw SQL, no SPA, no ORM.
• Current stack: Vercel + Neon + Clerk (see Vercel migration for ids and deploy gotchas). Live: https://formidableproducts.vercel.app
• Codex CLI (0.144.4) is available locally with a full subscription. Use it for anything needing GPT.
• Full product vision: /Users/alex.constantin/Downloads/Finish_Together_Product_Vision.md (this map covers only the lean v1).
• Skills to consult: frontend-design (UI), agent-browser (verification).

Decisions so far

• Infra: ChatGPT Sites, native auth: Sites with Sign in with ChatGPT + D1; Clerk dropped because it was incompatible with Sites and the user wanted to test Sites infrastructure.
• Scope: lean board: profiles, listings, filters, and an "I'm interested" flow. Nothing more in v1.
• Access: gated: open sign-in, content only for approved members, admin approval, and Sites sharing for "people you invite".
• Repo: local git + markdown tracker: no GitHub yet.
• Sites compatibility & deploy: deployed to ChatGPT Sites, then superseded the same day because the user judged Sites unsuitable.
• Vercel + Neon + Clerk migration: live at https://formidableproducts.vercel.app. D1→Neon, ChatGPT headers→Clerk hosted portal, esbuild pre-bundle to api/index.js because Vercel doesn't transpile .tsx, @hono/node-server@1 Vercel adapter, and SSO deployment protection disabled.

Not yet specified

• Member onboarding polish: what information to ask for at access-request time, and whether to notify the admin (email? none in v1?).
• Notifications/digest: do project owners learn about new interest other than by checking the site?
• Rollout to the group: admin signs in once (links seeded row), shares the URL, and approves members at /admin. Verify the full flow with a second real account.
• Clerk production instance: currently a dev instance (together-baboon-57.accounts.dev portal). Going custom-domain/production requires clerk deploy plus CLERK_SIGN_IN_URL.
• Schema changes: applied through Neon MCP today. Future changes need an idempotent migration convention.

Out of scope

• Messaging, reputation/reviews, legal templates, AI matching, escrow, and teams: deferred beyond this map's destination.
• ChatGPT Sites hosting: tried, deployed, then ruled out by the user because every member would need a ChatGPT account.
• Public/open sign-up: the access decision made it gated.