Build: Note-taking / Knowledge Base
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Preset
Authentication Methods*
Access Control*
Multi-factor Authentication
Tradeoffs
Each provider requires an OAuth app registration and key rotation policy
Requires IdP partnership and XML-based protocol handling; significant integration work
Permission checks must be applied consistently across every data access path
Search Approach*
Search Scope*
Tradeoffs
Requires FTS index maintenance; adds write-time overhead
Embedding generation adds latency and API cost per indexed document
Results must be unified and ranked across disparate data models
Storage Backend*
File Processing
Tradeoffs
Not horizontally scalable; lost on server replacement without backup
Higher monthly cost; requires cache invalidation strategy
Upload latency increases; requires AV service integration
Authorization Model*
Permission Scope*
Custom Role Management
Tradeoffs
Fast to build but every 'special case' access rule becomes bespoke code that's hard to audit
Requires a policy engine and relationship store kept in sync with primary data
Every list/read query must filter by ACL — expect query-plan work and caching investment
Support load increases substantially — each customer now has a unique permission configuration
Threading Model*
Content Features
Moderation Controls
Tradeoffs
Mobile UX suffers past 3 levels; pagination and collapse behavior need design attention
Expand notification infrastructure — mention notifications are high-priority and user-visible
Third-party ML dependency and ongoing tuning of thresholds to balance false positive rate
Summary
5 of 9 features enabled
Commonly added together
Gap analysis
Most productivity apps include Notifications
Effort Estimate
6–10 weeks
5 enabled features
Key Decisions
User System & Auth
Will this product be sold to businesses (B2B)?
If yes
Add SAML/SSO and RBAC. Enterprise procurement often requires both.
If no
Email + password plus one OAuth option covers 95% of consumer use cases.
User System & Auth
Is this a security-sensitive application?
If yes
Enable TOTP MFA. Consider making it mandatory for privileged users.
If no
MFA is optional — offer it but do not require it to reduce friction.
User System & Auth
Email+password, passwordless, or SSO-only?
If yes
Passwordless (magic links or passkeys) eliminates password reset tickets and credential stuffing risk.
If no
Keep email+password as a universal fallback — OAuth outages should not lock users out.
User System & Auth
Do you need social providers (Google, GitHub, Apple)?
If yes
Add Google for B2C breadth; add GitHub for developer tools; add Apple only if you ship iOS (App Store requires it when you offer other social login).
If no
Skip social OAuth and avoid the app registration / key rotation overhead.
User System & Auth
Do you need SCIM provisioning?
If yes
Add SCIM alongside SAML — enterprise IT uses it to auto-provision/deprovision employees and map group membership to roles.
If no
Manual invite flows are fine until your first enterprise customer asks for SCIM in a security review.
User System & Auth
Should MFA be required, optional, or risk-based?
If yes
Risk-based (step up MFA on new device, new IP, or sensitive actions) gives security without friction on every login.
If no
Offer MFA as optional first; require it only for admins or on privileged actions.
User System & Auth
Which MFA factors will you support (TOTP, SMS, WebAuthn/passkeys, hardware keys)?
If yes
Prefer WebAuthn/passkeys and TOTP. Avoid SMS as a primary factor — SIM swapping is a real threat.
If no
TOTP alone (Google Authenticator, Authy) covers the vast majority of users with minimal implementation cost.
User System & Auth
Do you need device fingerprinting or trusted-device flows?
If yes
Remember trusted devices for 30 days to skip MFA; challenge on new device or changed fingerprint.
If no
Re-prompt MFA on every login — simpler and safer for low-volume or highly sensitive apps.
User System & Auth
Offer passkey-only sign-in?
If yes
Passkeys eliminate passwords entirely — use WebAuthn with platform authenticators. Still keep an email recovery path for lost devices.
If no
Offer passkeys as an optional second factor; users without compatible devices keep using passwords.
User System & Auth
Support staff impersonation of user accounts?
If yes
Add an impersonation flow that logs both the staff identity and the target user, with a visible banner in the impersonated session.
If no
Skip impersonation — instead build admin-side read views and support tooling that do not require acting as the user.
User System & Auth
Captcha or bot detection on signup?
If yes
Add hCaptcha or Cloudflare Turnstile on signup and password reset — invisible challenges avoid user friction.
If no
Skip captcha for internal tools or invite-only products where bot signups are not a realistic threat.
User System & Auth
Use lockout or rate-limit throttling for credential stuffing?
If yes
Exponential rate limits per IP and per account — lockouts create support tickets and denial-of-service vectors via targeted lockout.
If no
If account takeover risk is low, a simple fixed rate limit (e.g., 10 attempts per 15 min) is sufficient.
User System & Auth
Allow multiple concurrent sessions per user?
If yes
Show active sessions in account settings with a revoke button — expected behavior for any multi-device product.
If no
Single-session apps (banking, compliance) should terminate old sessions on new login.
Search
Do users search by meaning, not just keywords?
If yes
Invest in semantic/vector search. Start with full-text and migrate.
If no
Full-text search covers keyword use cases at a fraction of the cost.
Search
DB full-text or a dedicated engine (Elasticsearch, Typesense, Algolia)?
If yes
Reach for a dedicated engine when DB FTS can't meet latency or ranking needs. Algolia for hosted DX, Typesense/Meilisearch for self-hosted.
If no
Start with SQLite FTS5 or Postgres tsvector — no extra service to run.
Search
Do users need faceted filtering (refine by category, tag, date range)?
If yes
Use a dedicated engine — faceting across millions of rows in Postgres FTS gets slow fast. Typesense and Algolia do this natively.
If no
Keyword-only over FTS is sufficient; add facets later.
Search
Do you need typo tolerance / fuzzy matching on short queries?
If yes
A dedicated engine (Typesense, Algolia, Meilisearch) gives this out of the box. DB FTS typo tolerance is weak.
If no
Strict matching is fine for structured queries and technical users.
Search
Will you support multiple languages with proper stemming?
If yes
Pick an engine with per-locale analyzers (Elasticsearch, Meilisearch). Postgres tsvector ships only a handful of language dictionaries.
If no
English-only tsvector or FTS5 is plenty.
Search
Do users expect personalized ranking (their clicks influence their results)?
If yes
Algolia or a custom scoring layer on top of an engine — personalization needs per-user signals, not just index weights.
If no
Use global relevance scoring (BM25) — simpler and predictable.
Search
Is autocomplete / instant search (as-you-type) part of the UX?
If yes
Pick Typesense, Algolia, or Meilisearch — all tuned for sub-50ms responses. Postgres FTS will feel sluggish here.
If no
Submit-driven search works against any backend.
Search
Do you need search analytics (popular queries, zero-result queries)?
If yes
Log queries + result counts separately; feed into your analytics pipeline. Algolia and Meilisearch expose this natively.
If no
Skip until product teams ask for it.
Search
Must results respect per-user permissions (ACL-aware)?
If yes
Index ACL identifiers alongside documents and filter at query time. Global cross-entity search is especially risky — validate before shipping.
If no
A flat index is simpler; use when all users see the same corpus.
Search
Do customers need custom synonyms and stop-words (domain vocabulary)?
If yes
A dedicated engine with synonym dictionaries (Algolia, Elasticsearch) — editable without re-indexing.
If no
Default analyzers work for general-purpose text.
Search
Do you need rule-based boosting (featured or sponsored results)?
If yes
Algolia has a dashboard for this; Elasticsearch supports function_score. Don't hand-roll on top of tsvector.
If no
Pure relevance ranking is cleaner.
Search
Is mobile bandwidth a constraint for search-as-you-type?
If yes
Debounce aggressively (~300ms), return tiny payloads, and consider a provider that supports partial-result responses.
If no
Desktop-grade instant search is fine; no special tuning needed.
Search
Must newly created content be searchable within seconds (near-real-time)?
If yes
Index on write into an engine with NRT support (Elasticsearch, Typesense). Budget for higher write amplification.
If no
Batch reindex every few minutes via background job — simpler and cheaper.
Search
Do users search across multiple indices / entity types in one query (federated)?
If yes
Global scope is required. Use Algolia multi-index search or aggregate in app code — plan ranking carefully.
If no
Per-resource search is simpler and faster.
Search
Do users need "did you mean" spell correction for empty-result queries?
If yes
Meilisearch and Algolia provide this out of the box. Ties naturally with zero-result analytics.
If no
Show filters and suggested queries instead; simpler to build.
Search
Should users be able to save searches or get alerts on new matches?
If yes
Store the query, schedule a job to re-run it, and diff results. Pair with the notifications module for delivery.
If no
Manual re-runs cover most use cases; skip the infra.
File Storage
Will the app run on more than one server?
If yes
Object storage is required — local disk breaks horizontal scaling.
If no
Local disk works for prototypes; switch to S3-compatible before scaling.
File Storage
Do users upload files directly via presigned URLs?
If yes
Issue short-lived (5–15 min) presigned PUT URLs so uploads skip your server — cheaper, faster, and sidesteps body-size limits.
If no
Proxying uploads through your API is simpler but caps throughput at your server bandwidth — fine for small files only.
File Storage
Do you need chunked/multipart uploads for large files?
If yes
Use S3 multipart upload for anything over ~100MB — single-PUT uploads fail expensively on flaky networks.
If no
For small files (photos, documents under 10MB), a single PUT is simpler and sufficient.
File Storage
Resumable uploads required?
If yes
Use tus.io protocol or S3 multipart with client-side state so users can resume after network drops — critical for mobile video uploads.
If no
Small-file workflows can safely require restart-on-failure.
File Storage
Auto image/video transcoding or thumbnail generation?
If yes
Pipe uploads to a transcoding service (Cloudinary, Mux, Lambda@Edge with sharp/ffmpeg) — async, never block upload completion.
If no
Skip transcoding for document-heavy workflows where files are not consumed as media.
File Storage
Access model: files public, private, or signed-URL access?
If yes
Private by default with short-lived signed URLs issued per authenticated request — safest for user-generated content.
If no
Fully public buckets are fine for static assets (logos, public images); never for user data.
File Storage
Do you need client-side encryption at rest?
If yes
Encrypt on the client before upload with customer-managed keys — required for strict compliance (healthcare, legal).
If no
Server-side encryption (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS) is enough for most workloads and is transparent to clients.
File Storage
Store file metadata in DB or only in object storage?
If yes
Keep a files table in your DB with upload metadata, owner, status, and a content hash — drives permissions and search.
If no
Object storage alone is sufficient only for truly anonymous, throwaway uploads.
File Storage
Do you need cold-storage tiering for old files?
If yes
Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering or lifecycle rules to move files untouched for 30/90 days to Glacier — dramatic cost savings on archival data.
If no
Skip tiering for small storage footprints or hot-access workloads where retrieval latency matters.
File Storage
Track storage usage per user/tenant for quotas/billing?
If yes
Aggregate usage in a separate table, updated on upload/delete events — do not scan object storage for totals in real time.
If no
Skip metering for internal tools or flat-rate products without storage-based billing.
File Storage
CDN fronting for downloads?
If yes
Put Cloudflare or CloudFront in front of downloads — cuts global latency 5–10x and offloads bandwidth cost. Use signed CDN URLs for private content.
If no
Direct object-storage serving is fine when users are regional and file access is infrequent.
File Storage
Deduplicate identical uploads (content-addressed)?
If yes
Hash files on upload and store by content hash — saves storage on duplicate assets but complicates deletion (reference counting).
If no
Skip dedup for user-facing products where each upload is semantically distinct regardless of bytes.
File Storage
Strip EXIF/metadata from uploaded images for privacy?
If yes
Strip GPS and camera metadata on upload — critical for public-facing photos where location leakage is a real privacy risk.
If no
Keep EXIF for creative-workflow tools (photography, mapping) where metadata is a feature, not a leak.
File Storage
Retain prior versions of files (file versioning)?
If yes
Enable S3 object versioning and track versions in your files table — required for collaborative document editing and compliance workflows.
If no
Overwrite-in-place is simpler and sufficient for user-managed assets where history is not valuable.
File Storage
Soft-delete with trash/recycle bin?
If yes
Mark files deleted in DB but retain objects for 30 days — dramatically reduces "help, I lost my file" support tickets.
If no
Hard delete is appropriate for compliance-driven retention where files must be gone when requested.
Roles & Permissions
Do users need different levels of access in different parts of the product?
If yes
Move beyond simple roles — at minimum, adopt RBAC.
If no
A two-value role enum on the user table is plenty.
Roles & Permissions
Do users share individual items (documents, projects) with specific other users?
If yes
You need per-resource scope. Plan for ABAC or ReBAC now, not later.
If no
Workspace-level scope is usually sufficient.
Roles & Permissions
Are enterprise customers asking to configure roles themselves?
If yes
Expose a role editor on the built-in permission primitives; price it.
If no
Ship a fixed role set and iterate based on feedback.
Roles & Permissions
Do you need per-field permission granularity?
If yes
Move to ABAC or a policy engine (OpenFGA, Cerbos) — field-level rules are unmaintainable in RBAC.
If no
Row/resource-level checks are enough; keep the model coarse.
Roles & Permissions
Do permissions need to inherit via hierarchical groups (folder → subfolder, org → team)?
If yes
ReBAC is the natural fit — Zanzibar-style graph traversal handles inheritance cleanly.
If no
Flat role-to-resource assignments are simpler and easier to debug.
Roles & Permissions
Is deny-by-default the required posture?
If yes
Default every permission check to false; require an explicit grant. Standard for compliance-regulated products.
If no
Allow-by-default with blocklist rules is risky — only acceptable for internal tools.
Roles & Permissions
Must users delegate access (X grants Y access to Z) without an admin?
If yes
Per-resource scope is required. Build a share action with grantor tracking in the audit log.
If no
Admin-mediated grants keep the authorization surface auditable and small.
Roles & Permissions
Do you need policy-as-code (OPA, Cedar) managed alongside application code?
If yes
Adopt a policy engine — policies get versioned, reviewed, and tested like any source file.
If no
Keep authorization as a central module in app code until policy churn justifies the engine.
Roles & Permissions
Do grants need to expire automatically (temporary access, contractor windows)?
If yes
Add an expires_at on every grant and a scheduled job that revokes on expiry. Critical for least-privilege compliance.
If no
Permanent grants with manual revocation are simpler but audit-unfriendly.
Roles & Permissions
Do you need a break-glass / super-admin role for incident response?
If yes
Define it explicitly, require MFA to assume it, and audit-log every action taken under it. Keep the member list tiny.
If no
Regular admin + vendor support access covers most cases; avoid god-mode accounts.
Roles & Permissions
Are sensitive role grants (e.g. billing-admin) subject to approval workflow?
If yes
Build a request + approve flow with a second approver on the granting side. Common in SOC 2 environments.
If no
Direct admin grants are faster — add audit logging instead.
Roles & Permissions
Do enterprise customers need SCIM-driven group membership from their IdP?
If yes
Map SCIM groups to roles; treat the IdP as source of truth and avoid manual role edits for SCIM-managed users.
If no
In-app role management is simpler for SMB customers.
Roles & Permissions
Do permission changes need a dedicated audit log (separate from general audit log)?
If yes
Emit a specialized authz-change stream — compliance reviewers need to query grants without sifting through all activity.
If no
Fold permission changes into the general audit log; tag them for easy filtering.
Roles & Permissions
Do API keys need permissions separate from the user who minted them?
If yes
Give keys their own scoped permission set (typically a subset of the user's). Prevents accidental privilege inheritance.
If no
Mirror the minting user's permissions — simpler but revoking a user breaks their keys.
Roles & Permissions
Can you push authorization into the database with row-level security?
If yes
Postgres RLS (or Supabase) centralizes enforcement at the data layer — out-of-band queries can't bypass it. Set auth context on every connection.
If no
Central policy module in app code is easier to debug and port across databases.
Roles & Permissions
Are permission checks on your hot path (every list render)?
If yes
Cache lookups with a short TTL (30–60s) plus a revocation list checked per request — pure DB lookups will bottleneck.
If no
Uncached checks are fine; add caching only when profiler data demands it.
Comments & Discussions
Is this a collaboration tool or a public discussion forum?
If yes
Collaboration: one-level replies. Forum: flat or deep nesting depending on culture.
If no
Flat list is usually enough for product reviews or simple feedback surfaces.
Comments & Discussions
Are comments visible to non-authenticated users or strangers?
If yes
Invest in moderation tooling from day one — flagging, rate limits, and either manual or automated review.
If no
Internal/authenticated discussions need less moderation but still need edit/delete.
Comments & Discussions
Support edit with full edit history?
If yes
Store every edit as a version row — useful for trust and dispute resolution, but plan a UI to expose history without cluttering the main view.
If no
An "edited" marker without history is enough for most collaboration tools.
Comments & Discussions
Hard-delete comments or leave a tombstone on removal?
If yes
Tombstones (show "[deleted]" in-place) preserve thread context — the right call for anything threaded.
If no
Hard delete is fine for flat comment lists where there is no structural reply to preserve.
Comments & Discussions
Moderation timing: pre-publication, post-publication, or none?
If yes
Pre-publication review is required for regulated industries (children, health). Expect significant moderator workload and latency from post to visible.
If no
Post-publication review (flag and hide) is standard — fast for users, with moderator queues for flagged content.
Comments & Discussions
Rich text, Markdown, or plain text only?
If yes
Markdown is the sweet spot — expressive, safe, and ubiquitous. Render server-side with a sanitizer; never allow raw HTML.
If no
Plain text is appropriate for short-form reactions (reviews, microposts) where formatting adds nothing.
Comments & Discussions
Comment permalinks required?
If yes
Every comment needs a stable ID and shareable URL — critical for linking in tickets, emails, and threads.
If no
Skip permalinks for ephemeral surfaces where no one will ever cite a specific comment.
Comments & Discussions
Allow anonymous/guest commenting?
If yes
Require captcha and aggressive rate limits — anonymous comments are the #1 spam vector. Store IP and user-agent for abuse investigation.
If no
Authenticated-only commenting dramatically reduces moderation burden.
Comments & Discussions
Do you need spam/abuse detection (Akismet, Perspective)?
If yes
Akismet for spam, Perspective API for toxicity — both are advisory signals feeding a human review queue, not auto-ban triggers.
If no
Manual flagging + rate limits are enough for low-volume or trusted-user surfaces.
Comments & Discussions
Allow file or image attachments in comments?
If yes
Add object storage and content-type validation; require virus scanning if comments are public. Consider size limits per comment and per user.
If no
Text-only comments dramatically reduce moderation, storage, and security surface.
Comments & Discussions
Full-text search over comments?
If yes
Postgres tsvector covers you up to ~10M comments; switch to Meilisearch/Typesense when search becomes a core workflow.
If no
Users navigate to the parent object and scroll — no search index needed for low-volume surfaces.
Comments & Discussions
Owner-exportable comment archive (for GDPR/DSR)?
If yes
Provide a JSON or CSV export endpoint for comment authors — required for GDPR data portability in EU markets.
If no
Internal-only products without EU users can defer this until a customer specifically asks.
Comments & Discussions
Pin or highlight specific comments?
If yes
A boolean pinned flag per comment plus a UI treatment — useful for FAQs, announcements, or marking resolution on issue threads.
If no
Skip pinning if comments are short-lived conversational — it adds UI and moderation complexity.
Comments & Discussions
Inline translation across languages?
If yes
Call Google Translate or DeepL on-demand per comment and cache translations — full pre-translation wastes API budget.
If no
Skip translation for single-language communities or where users handle translation externally.
Preset
Authentication Methods*
Access Control*
Multi-factor Authentication
Tradeoffs
Each provider requires an OAuth app registration and key rotation policy
Requires IdP partnership and XML-based protocol handling; significant integration work
Permission checks must be applied consistently across every data access path
Search Approach*
Search Scope*
Tradeoffs
Requires FTS index maintenance; adds write-time overhead
Embedding generation adds latency and API cost per indexed document
Results must be unified and ranked across disparate data models
Storage Backend*
File Processing
Tradeoffs
Not horizontally scalable; lost on server replacement without backup
Higher monthly cost; requires cache invalidation strategy
Upload latency increases; requires AV service integration
Authorization Model*
Permission Scope*
Custom Role Management
Tradeoffs
Fast to build but every 'special case' access rule becomes bespoke code that's hard to audit
Requires a policy engine and relationship store kept in sync with primary data
Every list/read query must filter by ACL — expect query-plan work and caching investment
Support load increases substantially — each customer now has a unique permission configuration
Threading Model*
Content Features
Moderation Controls
Tradeoffs
Mobile UX suffers past 3 levels; pagination and collapse behavior need design attention
Expand notification infrastructure — mention notifications are high-priority and user-visible
Third-party ML dependency and ongoing tuning of thresholds to balance false positive rate