# Build brief — a focused alternative to Escourtly > **Verdict:** Partly, if you narrow it · **Buildability:** 49/100 · **Category:** Screen Recording > **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/escourtly > Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Escourtly. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting. ## Context **Escourtly** — Capture a product as live HTML and replay it as a clickable demo prospects can drive themselves. It currently costs $49/mo. The core loop is a focused build on top of rrweb: snapshot the DOM on each click, inline the assets, and replay the snapshots as a clickable walkthrough. What takes the project from a demo to something you would put in front of a prospect is capture fidelity · real apps are full of canvas, cross-origin iframes, shadow DOM and lazily loaded assets, and every one of them is a separate fix. Past that sit the parts that are infrastructure rather than features: no-login share links and embeds that stay up, custom domains with certificates, funnel analytics, and CRM sync. Build it for your own product and a focused implementation gets you a long way. Build it to replace the subscription and you have signed up for the edge cases. This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Escourtly 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 Record a DOM snapshot on each click with a browser extension, annotate the steps, and publish them as a clickable walkthrough at a public URL. - Capture a screen region, encode it reliably, and produce shareable output. - A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states. ## Requirements ### Functional - Node and a Postgres database. - A Chrome MV3 extension build step. - Somewhere to host the public demo pages. ### Data and integrations - An OpenAI/Anthropic API key for step descriptions. 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 Escourtly in an empty repository. Use Next.js 15 with the App Router, TypeScript, Postgres via Drizzle, and rrweb; do not offer alternative stacks. Ship two pieces: a Chrome MV3 extension that captures steps, and a web app that stores and replays them. The core loop is: click through a product with the extension recording, capture each step as an rrweb DOM snapshot, annotate the steps, and publish a clickable walkthrough at a public URL. In the extension, let the user start and stop a capture, and record one snapshot per click along with the click target. Inline stylesheets, fonts and images into each snapshot so the replay renders without calling back to the origin site. Mask input values and anything marked data-private by default, and show what is masked in the editor. In the web app, show a step list with reorder, delete, and an editable title and description per step. Generate a first draft of each step description from the snapshot with an LLM, and let the user overwrite it. Render the replay as an interactive page: the snapshot is live HTML, with a hotspot on the recorded click target that advances to the next step. Add a start overlay and a final call-to-action overlay with a configurable link. Publish each walkthrough at a share URL that needs no login, plus an iframe embed snippet. Count views, step completions and CTA clicks per walkthrough without any third-party analytics. Store everything in your own Postgres and make JSON export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe slugs, and graceful handling of snapshots that fail to render. Write focused tests for snapshot serialization and one end-to-end capture-to-replay path. Create a README with setup, architecture, how to load the extension, data location, and backup steps. Do not add billing, team accounts, or a hosted control plane. Deliberately leave out custom domains and certificate management. Deliberately leave out CRM integrations. Deliberately leave out capture of canvas, video and cross-origin iframes, and document the limitation in the README. 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: - Capture fidelity on canvas, cross-origin iframes, shadow DOM and lazily loaded assets. - No-login share links and embeds that hold up under real traffic. - Viewer funnel analytics and lead capture. - CRM sync to Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive. - Custom domains with certificates handled for you. ## 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 reviewed project implementation is linked yet. ## Prior art Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting: - [rrweb](https://github.com/rrweb-io/rrweb) — MIT-licensed DOM record and replay · the capture engine this whole category is built on --- Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/escourtly