# Build brief — a focused alternative to Google Drive

> **Verdict:** Not faithfully · **Buildability:** 19/100 · **Category:** Cloud Storage
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/google-drive
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Google Drive. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Google Drive** — Cloud file storage with sync clients, sharing links, and the Google Docs suite bolted on. It currently costs $1.99/mo.

You can absolutely build a file upload page with folders, search, and share links with a focused implementation. What you cannot build is durable multi-region storage that has not lost a byte in fifteen years, a sync daemon that survives sleep, flaky wifi, and two machines editing the same folder, and native apps on every platform your family owns. The cost side is brutal too: two terabytes of redundant storage plus egress will run you more than the consumer plan, before you have written a line of code. Add that half the value is not storage at all, it is that everyone you share with already has an account and Docs opens in one click. This is infrastructure wearing a UI, and infrastructure is the part you are paying for.

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

A self-hosted file locker: upload, browse folders, full text search on filenames, and generate expiring public share links from a single box you control.

- Sync folders to object storage with encryption and versioned backups.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- A VPS or always-on home machine with disk you actually trust.
- S3-compatible object storage or a RAID array plus a real offsite backup.
- A domain and TLS cert for share links.
- Willingness to test your own restore path before you need it.

### 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 self-hosted personal file locker called "Vault". Single Node.js service, no framework soup.

Stack, non negotiable:
- Node 20 with Fastify and TypeScript
- SQLite via better-sqlite3 for metadata
- Files stored on local disk under DATA_DIR, sharded by the first two chars of a content hash
- Server rendered HTML with Nunjucks plus a little vanilla JS, no React
- Single admin user, password hash in .env, cookie session

In scope:
- Upload via drag and drop, chunked, resumable, files up to 5 GB, using tus protocol or a simple range based chunk endpoint you write
- Content addressed storage: hash on upload, dedupe identical bytes, keep every version of a path
- Folder tree browsing, rename, move, soft delete with a 30 day trash table and a purge command
- Search on filename, extension, size range, and date, all from SQLite
- Share links: random 22 char token, optional expiry, optional download limit, optional password, served from a read only route that streams with correct Content-Type and range support
- Thumbnails for images and PDF first pages using sharp and pdftoppm if present, skipped gracefully if not
- A "vault backup" CLI command that rsyncs DATA_DIR and dumps the SQLite file, plus a "vault verify" that rehashes everything and reports drift

Out of scope, do not attempt:
- Desktop or mobile sync clients
- Multi user accounts, sharing between accounts, permissions matrices
- Document editing or previews beyond thumbnails
- Any cloud service, telemetry, or analytics

Requirements:
- All config in .env: PORT, DATA_DIR, ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH, SESSION_SECRET, PUBLIC_BASE_URL
- docker-compose.yml with one service and one named volume
- Integration tests covering chunked upload, resume after interrupt, dedupe, share link expiry, and trash purge
- README that states plainly: this is one disk, it is not a backup, here is the restore drill, run it once a quarter

## 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:

- Real sync clients on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, including offline files and conflict resolution.
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides opening inline with live multiplayer editing.
- Durability and availability engineering you will never match, plus versioning and trash that actually works.
- Sharing with people who already have accounts, plus granular permissions and audit trails.
- OCR and content search inside PDFs and images, and the mobile scanner.

## What you still own after launch

- 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: high. No reviewed project implementation is linked yet.

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