openbacklog.app

Open-source backlog manager for gamers.

Positioning: help players decide what to play and finish more games (not just catalog titles).

Vision

openbacklog.app is a web platform (with mobile expansion in mind) inspired by Backloggd, but differentiated by:

• Real backlog productivity (planning, prioritization, completion focus)
• Practical AI features (smart recommendations and habit insights)
• Better UX and lower manual friction
• Lightweight social layer to support engagement

Initial Product Scope

Core parity + base value

• Game tracking and personal library (Backlog-style)
• Ratings and reviews (Steam-like model)
• Time-to-beat tracking (HTLB-style integration)
• Friends + activity feed
• Completion streaks and goals
• Monthly release calendar + reminders

Differentiators from day one

• "What should I play today?" assistant
• Dynamic backlog prioritization
• Estimated total time to clear backlog
• Abandonment-risk signals ("likely to drop")
• Smart recommendations for Premium users
• Minimal-friction import (Steam first)

Suggested Technical Stack

Frontend

• Next.js (App Router, Server Components)
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui
• next-intl for localization (en, es first)

Backend (current decision)

Start with Next.js backend in the same app to move faster in the MVP:

• Route Handlers + server-side services in src
• Type-safe domain modules under src/server/*
• Better Auth for authentication
• Keep clear service boundaries to allow future extraction into a dedicated API app later

Data and infra

• Turso (libSQL/SQLite) as primary relational store
• Drizzle ORM + Drizzle Kit migrations
• Redis (cache, queues, rate limiting, feed fan-out)
• Object storage for user media (screenshots/avatars)
• Background workers for sync/import/recommendations/reminders

Integrations

• IGDB API (game metadata)
• Steam import (phase 1 external sync)

Current Repository Setup

• Single Next.js app repository (no workspaces)
• One codebase for UI + backend endpoints during MVP
• Keep modules organized by domain under src/*

Landing Header (Current)

• Header extracted to src/components/landing/header.tsx.
• Layout contract:
  • Left: site title.
  • Center: links to landing sections (#hero, #capabilities, #testimonials, #join).
  • Right: register CTA, GitHub repository link with stars counter, and language dropdown.
• Language selector uses shadcn dropdown-menu for locale switching (en, es).
• GitHub stars are served from GET /api/github/stars and auto-refresh on client every minute.
• Optional GITHUB_TOKEN can be configured in .env to avoid low unauthenticated GitHub API limits.

High-Level Architecture

• This app serves UI and backend endpoints.
• Domain logic lives in reusable server modules (not in UI components).
• Background jobs can move to a worker service when needed (imports, reminders, analytics).
• redis decouples write-heavy and time-based operations.
• turso stores canonical relational data.

MVP Roadmap (Proposed)

Phase 0: Foundation

• CI and quality gates (lint, typecheck, test)
• Auth, user profile, i18n foundation (en/es)
• IGDB ingestion pipeline (core entities)

Phase 1: Core backlog

• Library states (planned, playing, completed, dropped, on_hold)
• Ratings and short reviews
• Search/filter/sort library
• Basic public profile pages (SEO-ready)

Phase 2: Social first

• Friends + activity feed
• Profiles and social interactions (follow/friend, reactions)
• Streaks/goals v1

Phase 3: Productivity

• "What to play next" scoring v1 (rule-based)
• Backlog total hours estimation
• Backlog prioritization signals

Phase 4: Premium + growth

• Smart recommendations (Premium, AI later phase)
• Ad system for free users
• Reminder calendar for upcoming releases
• Steam import hardening and onboarding funnels

SEO Strategy (Critical)

• Server-rendered public pages for games, profiles, reviews, lists
• Structured metadata (Open Graph, Twitter, JSON-LD)
• Programmatic SEO pages for genres/platforms/release windows
• Localized URLs and hreflang (/en/..., /es/...)
• Sitemap segmentation + canonical rules
• Performance budgets (Core Web Vitals in CI)

Internationalization

• UI copy and metadata in English and Spanish from day one
• Locale-aware slugs where possible
• Translation keys live in src/lib/i18n
• All new UI changes require both locales before merge

Monetization Model

• Free tier with ads (Google AdSense at launch)
• Direct sponsorship placements if inbound advertiser demand appears
• Premium subscription:
  • Ad-free experience
  • Advanced AI recommendations
  • Future premium analytics and personalization modules

Open Source Principles

• Contributor-first docs and predictable architecture boundaries
• Public roadmap and RFC process for major changes
• Strong automated checks to keep quality consistent

Local Development (target workflow)

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Expected scripts once scaffolded:

• pnpm lint
• pnpm typecheck
• pnpm test
• pnpm build
• pnpm email:launch

Database (Turso + Drizzle)

Initial scope for launch landing: one preregistration table only.

Table: pre_registrations

• id: auto-increment primary key
• email: unique and required
• registered_at: registration timestamp (unix epoch seconds)
• notification_sent: boolean flag (false by default)

Setup flow:

# 1) Create database in Turso (if not created yet)
turso db create openbacklog

# 2) Get connection values
turso db show openbacklog --url
turso db tokens create openbacklog

# 3) Put them into .env
# TURSO_DATABASE_URL=libsql://...
# TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN=...
# RESEND_API_KEY=re_...
# RESEND_FROM_EMAIL=OpenBacklog <hello@updates.openbacklog.app>
# WAITLIST_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@openbacklog.app

# 4) Generate and run migrations
pnpm db:generate
pnpm db:migrate

Waitlist Registration + Emails

Landing waitlist flow now includes:

• Save registration in Turso (pre_registrations)
• Send confirmation email to the user (Resend + React Email template)
• Send admin notification email for each new registration
• Send roadmap suggestion notifications (/{locale}/roadmap) to admin + user confirmation

Required env vars:

• RESEND_API_KEY
• RESEND_FROM_EMAIL
• WAITLIST_ADMIN_EMAIL
• ROADMAP_SUGGESTIONS_ADMIN_EMAIL (optional, falls back to WAITLIST_ADMIN_EMAIL)
• NEXT_PUBLIC_GA_MEASUREMENT_ID (optional, enables GA4)
• GOOGLE_SITE_VERIFICATION (optional, enables GSC verification meta tag)

Launch day mass email command (sends only users with notification_sent = false and marks them as sent):

pnpm email:launch

Google Analytics + Search Console (Prepared)

The app is already wired for both integrations:

• GA4 script auto-loads if NEXT_PUBLIC_GA_MEASUREMENT_ID is set.
• Search Console verification meta tag is added if GOOGLE_SITE_VERIFICATION is set.
• robots.txt and sitemap.xml are available for indexing.

Once you share the IDs/tokens, just set them in environment variables and redeploy.

Changelog entries (Markdown)

The changelog page reads markdown files from:

• content/changelog/en/*.md (primary source)
• content/changelog/es/*.md (optional)

If a locale has no markdown entries (for example /es), the page automatically falls back to English content.

Recommended frontmatter:

---
version: 0.0.2
date: 2026-04-09
title: "v0.0.2 - Short release title"
summary: "One-line summary for cards and previews."
---

Files are sorted by date (desc) and then version (desc).

Current Status

This repository is currently in project bootstrap stage.

License

Licensed under Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening pull requests.

Code of Conduct

Please read CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.