HistoryPal

AI Prompts to Build This

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1. 1. Project Setup

   Build the weekend MVP of "HistoryPal": students chat with a historical figure whose answers come only from real sources, inside a class their teacher controls. Start with one figure, Abraham Lincoln.
   
   Stack: Next.js (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind, Supabase (Postgres full-text search, Row Level Security, Auth), the Anthropic API for the in-character answers. Teachers sign in with an email magic link. Students join with a class code and a first name through Supabase anonymous sign-in, so no student email is ever collected. Deploy on Vercel.
   
   Tables (Row Level Security on; a teacher reads only their own classes, a student only their own conversation):
   - classes(id, teacher_id, name, join_code, figure_id, blocked_topics text[])
   - figures(id, name, persona_notes)
   - source_passages(id, figure_id, title, citation, text, search tsvector)  public-domain letters and speeches only
   - conversations(id, class_id, student_id, display_name, created_at)
   - messages(id, conversation_id, role, content, cited_passage_ids uuid[], flagged boolean)
   
   Screens: /login, /class/[id] (teacher: transcripts and flags), /join (class code and first name), /chat/[conversationId].
   Env vars (names only): NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL, NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY, SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY (server only), ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
   
   Do not build: billing or school licenses, embeddings or a vector store, other figures, grading or LMS export, voice, a student email or phone field.
   Done when: npm run dev starts, a teacher can sign in, a student can join with a code, and the five tables exist with Row Level Security on.

2. 2. Core Feature

   Build the one feature that proves HistoryPal: an in-character answer grounded in cited sources.
   1. Seed 15 to 20 Lincoln passages (speeches and letters in the public domain) into source_passages, each with its citation.
   2. On each student message, run a Postgres full-text search on source_passages for that figure and take the top 4 passages.
   3. Call the Anthropic API. The system prompt says: answer in the first person as the figure, use only the retrieved passages, and end with the ids of the passages used. Return JSON { answer: string, cited_passage_ids: string[] }.
   4. If no passage matches, return an in-character line such as "I cannot speak to that." Never invent a fact, date or quote.
   5. Show each answer with its citations as short source labels the student can open to read the passage. Show a banner on the chat: "An AI answering from real sources, not the real person."
   6. Check the student message against the class's blocked_topics and a short profanity list before the model call. A blocked message gets a kind refusal and is saved with flagged = true.
   Rules: students never see another student's chat. Teachers see every transcript and a list of flagged messages.
   Empty state: a class with no chats shows the join code in large type.
   Done when: a question the sources cover returns a cited answer, a question about a smartphone returns "I cannot speak to that", and a blocked topic shows up as a flag on the teacher's page.

3. 3. Landing Page

   Build a one-page landing site for HistoryPal, aimed at teachers.
   Hero: "Let your students interview history." Sub: "Students ask Abraham Lincoln real questions and get answers drawn only from his own words, with sources shown. You see every chat." One button: Join the teacher waitlist.
   Sections: a sample chat with a cited answer and one "I cannot speak to that" reply, how it works in three steps (pick a figure, share a class code, read the transcripts), a privacy block (students join with a first name only, no student email is collected, and you can delete a class and its chats), and an FAQ on accuracy, safety for minors and which figures come next.
   Waitlist: store the email in a waitlist table in Supabase. No other service.
   Style: warm paper background, one serif for quotes and Geist for the interface, one brick-red accent.
   Done when: the page renders on a phone and a submitted email appears in the waitlist table.

4. 4. Branding Package

   Use a design or image tool for this one. A coding agent cannot draw a logo.
   Brand for HistoryPal: a wordmark and an icon that suggest a speech bubble shaped like a folded page corner.
   Colors: ink navy, parchment and one brick-red. Type: a serif such as Source Serif for quoted words, Geist for the interface.
   Deliverables: wordmark, icon, a portrait frame style for figures (use public-domain images only, or a plain silhouette), a "source cited" label, and one classroom handout graphic.
   Done when: each deliverable is saved in one folder and the label reads clearly in black and white.