Anecdotario

Preserve your family stories. From your personal anecdotes to inherited tales from your grandparents, all in one place.

Comment

Inspiration

Family stories disappear. Your grandmother's WWII tale, your grandfather's journey to another country, your uncle's unforgettable adventure—they fade with time unless someone preserves them. We wanted to build a way to capture these narratives before they're lost forever, while also honoring the stories that matter most to you personally.

## What it does

Anecdotario is an AI-powered family story archive that:

  • Captures anecdotes with intelligent chat assistance that helps you write compelling narratives
  • Preserves lineage: Mark stories as "personal" (things that happened to you) or "familiar" (inherited family tales from ancestors)
  • Tracks sources: Record who told you a story, when they told it, and when it actually happened—critical for century-old family histories
  • Orders chronologically: Define relative ordering ("this happened before/after that other story") without needing exact dates
  • Shares securely: Control who sees each story (private, friends, or shared)
  • Works in English & Spanish with multi-language support

## How we built it

  • Frontend: Next.js 16 + React 19 + TypeScript
  • Backend: Supabase (PostgreSQL) with Row-Level Security policies for privacy
  • AI: Claude 3.5 Sonnet via Vercel AI SDK—intelligently detects inherited vs personal stories
  • Ordering: Custom topological sort algorithm (Kahn's) to build chronologies from relative relationships
  • Database: Created 3 new tables (anecdote_sources, anecdote_ordering, category column) with RLS protection
  • Deployment: Vercel with environment variables for Supabase & Blob storage

## Challenges we ran into

  1. Dating without dates: How do you order stories when you don't know exact dates? We solved it with relative ordering—users compare stories ("this was before X, after Y") and we build a graph
  2. RLS complexity: Ensuring users can only see their own stories while maintaining privacy across shared relationships required careful policy design
  3. AI detection: Getting Claude to intelligently detect whether a story is inherited vs personal, then ask for source info—required careful prompt engineering
  4. Git email mismatches: Deployment blocked because commit author email didn't match GitHub account (lesson: validate early)
  5. Vercel plan limitations: Hobby Plan doesn't support team collaboration on private repos—had to upgrade to Pro

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • ✅ Complete hereditary feature: Full pipeline from chat detection → source tracking → chronological ordering
  • ✅ Topological sort: Working algorithm that handles conflicts (first relationship wins) and calculates positions
  • ✅ Smart chat: Claude detects story type automatically and asks the right follow-up questions
  • ✅ Privacy-first: Row-Level Security policies protect user data at the database level
  • ✅ Production-ready: Deployed to Vercel with proper environment variables and build optimization
  • ✅ Multi-language: Full i18n support for Spanish & English

## What we learned

  1. Topological sort is powerful: For problems without strict ordering, relative relationships can be more intuitive than absolute timestamps
  2. Supabase RLS is game-changing: Security at the database layer means you can trust your queries
  3. AI detection is subtle: Prompting Claude to understand context and ask intelligent follow-ups requires precision
  4. Git matters: Email configuration affects deployments—catch it early
  5. Vercel workflow: Private repos with teams require Pro plan, but the deployment experience is excellent once configured

## What's next for Anecdotario

  • Family tree visualization: See how stories connect across generations
  • Collaborative editing: Multiple family members can refine and add to stories together
  • Photo & voice: Attach images and voice recordings to anecdotes
  • Export: Generate printable books or PDFs of your family chronicle
  • Timeline view: Interactive visual timeline of all family events
  • Search & tagging: Find stories by people, dates, or themes
  • Analytics: See patterns—when do most stories happen? Who are the main characters?
  • Public family archives: Optionally share curated collections with extended family or the internet

Built With

  • claude-3.5-sonnet
  • date-fns
  • lucide-react-icons
  • next-intl-(i18n)
  • next.js-16
  • react-19
  • row-level-security-(rls)
  • shadcn/ui
  • sonner-(toast)
  • supabase
  • supabase-(postgresql)
  • tailwind-css
  • typescript
  • vercel-(deployment)
  • vercel-ai-sdk
  • vercel-blob
  • zod-(validation)
Share this project:

Updates