# Build brief — a focused alternative to Frase

> **Verdict:** Partly, if you narrow it · **Buildability:** 55/100 · **Category:** SEO Marketing
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/frase
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Frase. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Frase** — SEO/GEO content platform for research, briefs, optimization, and AI writing. It currently costs $49/mo.

A content-brief generator over SERP pages and an LLM is reachable, but Frase's workflow combines SERP retrieval, scoring, editor UX, AI-search tracking, and reporting.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Frase 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

Retrieve top pages, summarize topics/questions/headings, generate a brief, score a draft against terms, and export to a doc.

- Automate a bounded research or reporting workflow using permitted data sources.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Web parser.
- Document/editor UI.
- Scoring logic.
- Hosted backend.

### Data and integrations

- SERP/search API.
- LLM API.

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 me a content-brief generator to replace Frase. Requirements:

- A Node CLI: `brief "<keyword>"` writes ./briefs/<keyword-slug>.md.
- Fetch the top 10 results for the keyword from Serper.dev (key in .env).
- Scrape each result with Playwright plus Readability: title, H2/H3 outline,
  word count, and any questions found on the page.
- Send the aggregate to an LLM (key in .env) to produce the brief: suggested
  title and angle, a target outline, questions to answer, terms competitors
  cover, and a word-count range.
- `score <draft.md> "<keyword>"` re-checks my draft against the brief: which
  terms and questions are covered or missing, with a plain coverage percentage.
- Cache scraped pages in ./cache/ keyed by URL so re-runs cost nothing.
- Flat files only, no database; no accounts, no telemetry, the only network
  calls are the SERP API, page fetches, and the LLM.
- Out of scope: an editor UI, rank tracking, team workflows. Briefs are
  Markdown, I write in my own editor.
- README: which keys to get and the rough per-brief cost of the SERP API.

## 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:

- SERP data pipeline.
- Optimization scoring.
- Team workflows.
- AI-search tracking.
- The useful dataset is owned, accumulated, or expensive to reproduce.
- 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.

## Risk

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

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

## Prior art

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

- [Danswer/Onyx](https://github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx) — Open-source enterprise search/answering app; not a Frase clone, but prior art for retrieva

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