# Build brief — a focused alternative to Greenhouse

> **Verdict:** Not faithfully · **Buildability:** 13/100 · **Category:** HR
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/greenhouse
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Greenhouse. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Greenhouse** — Applicant tracking and structured hiring software for companies that hire at volume.

An agent can absolutely build you a candidate tracker: stages, notes, a Kanban board, a scorecard form. That is maybe five percent of what Greenhouse is being paid for. The rest is job board syndication, a hosted careers page that survives traffic, interview scheduling against a dozen calendars, structured interview kits, permissioned access for hiring managers who are not you, audit trails, EEOC and OFCCP reporting, GDPR retention and deletion workflows, and a very long tail of HRIS and background check integrations. Hiring is also one of the most litigated processes in a company, which means the boring parts (who saw what, when, and what got deleted) are the product. Solo or two-person hiring is genuinely fine on a DIY tracker; anything with a legal surface is not.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Greenhouse 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 local applicant tracker: add roles, drag candidates through stages, attach resumes and notes, and fill structured scorecards, all in one SQLite file.

- Run internal workflows such as time-off requests, onboarding checklists, and review cycles.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Node 20+ and a place to run it (localhost is fine).
- Somewhere to put resume files (local disk).
- Your own inbox for actually talking to candidates.

### 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 local-only applicant tracker for a solo or two-person hiring pipeline. No cloud, no accounts, no telemetry.

Stack, non-negotiable:
- Next.js 15, App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind.
- SQLite via better-sqlite3, single file at ./data/ats.db. Schema in migrations run at boot.
- Resume/attachment files stored on local disk under ./data/files, referenced by path in the DB.
- No auth. This runs on localhost for one person.

Data model:
- roles: title, team, status (open/closed), created_at, notes markdown.
- candidates: name, email, phone, source (referral/inbound/outbound/agency), role_id, stage, created_at, archived_at nullable.
- stages are per-role and ordered: default Applied, Screen, Interview, Onsite, Offer, Hired, Rejected.
- notes: candidate_id, body markdown, created_at.
- scorecards: candidate_id, interview_name, per-attribute rating 1-4, overall recommendation (strong no/no/yes/strong yes), free text, created_at.
- attachments: candidate_id, filename, path, uploaded_at.
- events: append-only log of every stage change and field edit with timestamp. Never delete rows here.

UI:
- /roles list, /roles/[id] shows a Kanban board of that role's stages with drag and drop between columns.
- /candidates/[id] is the main screen: header with name, role, stage, source; tabs for Notes, Scorecards, Attachments, History (from events).
- Global search across candidate name, email, and note bodies. Use SQLite FTS5.
- Quick add: paste a name and email, pick a role, done in one modal.
- A per-role funnel count strip: how many in each stage, and median days in stage.

Also include:
- Structured interview kits: per-role, define a named interview with 3-6 attributes to rate. Scorecards are created from a kit so ratings stay comparable.
- CSV export of all candidates and scorecards, and a JSON dump of the whole DB.
- A retention helper: a page listing candidates archived more than N days ago with a one-click purge that deletes their files and PII but keeps an anonymized events row. Default N in .env.

Explicitly out of scope, do not build or stub:
- Email sending, calendar scheduling, job board posting, a public careers page, multi-user permissions, any OAuth.

Deliver a README with setup, `npm run dev`, and a seed script that creates two roles and eight fake candidates. Secrets and config in .env.example.

## 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:

- Job board syndication and a hosted careers page candidates can find.
- Interview scheduling that reads real interviewer calendars.
- Multi-user permissions, so hiring managers can review without seeing everything.
- Compliance scaffolding: EEOC/OFCCP reporting, consent capture, GDPR retention and deletion, audit logs.
- Integrations with HRIS, background checks, assessments, and every recruiter tool your team already uses.

## 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

**High consequence.** Use this as a prototype or personal aid. Keep a qualified human and an established provider in the loop for consequential decisions.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No reviewed project implementation is linked yet.

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