# Build brief — a focused alternative to Amie

> **Verdict:** Partly, if you narrow it · **Buildability:** 63/100 · **Category:** Scheduling
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/amie
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Amie. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Amie** — Combine calendar, tasks, contacts, and scheduling in a polished daily interface. It currently costs $15/mo.

The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a substantially larger project. For Amie, combine calendar, tasks, contacts, and scheduling in a polished daily interface. The hard boundary is native polish, sync, calendar providers, mobile apps, and integrated communications, plus calendar integrations and reliability.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Amie that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

Read one calendar, combine tasks and contacts in a daily view, publish availability, create conflict-safe bookings, and send confirmations and reminders.

- Model availability, accept bookings, handle time zones, and send confirmations.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- PostgreSQL.
- Public deploy target.
- Domain with HTTPS.

### Data and integrations

- Google Calendar OAuth credentials.
- Resend API key.

Each of these needs a real account, credential, or quota. Set them up before writing feature code.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build a personal replacement for Amie in an empty repository.
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, Google Calendar OAuth, and Resend; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: read one calendar, combine tasks and contacts in a daily view, publish availability, create conflict-safe bookings, and send confirmations and reminders.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Implement one account with configurable working hours, buffers, minimum notice, and booking horizon.
Connect Google Calendar using OAuth and store refresh tokens encrypted at rest.
Calculate availability in UTC and render it in the visitor's detected timezone.
Reserve slots transactionally, create calendar events, and prevent concurrent double booking.
Send confirmation, cancellation, and reminder email with signed management links.
Add an admin booking list, event-type editor, audit log, and calendar reconnect flow.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out Microsoft and Apple calendar support.
Deliberately leave out team round-robin routing.
Deliberately leave out payments, CRM workflows, and enterprise controls.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Native polish, sync, calendar providers, mobile apps, and integrated communications.
- Multiple calendar providers.
- Team routing and round-robin.
- Payments.
- Connectors, OAuth flows, and vendor API changes require constant upkeep.
- The last 20 percent is sync, migration fidelity, speed, and edge cases.

## What you still own after launch

- Secure credentials, rotate secrets, and handle provider rate limits.
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
- Maintain every third-party integration as APIs and OAuth rules change.

## Risk

**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

## Prior art

Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting:

- [Cal.com](https://github.com/calcom/cal.com) — Mature open-source scheduling platform with calendar integrations and booking workflows

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Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/amie