# Build brief — a focused alternative to Reform

> **Verdict:** Yes, for personal use · **Buildability:** 67/100 · **Category:** Forms
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/reform
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Reform. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Reform** — Publish a clean branded lead form with routing, notifications, and exports. It currently costs $35/mo.

The core loop is small enough for a capable coding agent to produce a useful local version. For Reform, publish a clean branded lead form with routing, notifications, and exports. The hard boundary is polished ux, spam controls, integrations, and reliable hosted delivery, plus integrations, deliverability, and workflow depth.

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

Publish a clean branded lead form, validate submissions, route and notify the owner, and provide a private response table with CSV export.

- Create forms, validate submissions, store responses, and export the results.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Node.js 22.
- Self-hosted deploy target.

### Data and integrations

- Resend API key or SMTP credentials.

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 Reform in an empty repository.
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, SQLite, Drizzle ORM, and Resend; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: publish a clean branded lead form, validate submissions, route and notify the owner, and provide a private response table with CSV export.
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.
Create a form builder with short text, long text, email, number, select, radio, checkbox, and file fields.
Publish each form at a stable slug with server-side validation and accessible labels.
Add honeypot, rate limiting, submission-size limits, and a clear privacy notice.
Store responses in SQLite and provide search, filters, detail view, and CSV export.
Send an owner notification without placing submitted values in logs.
Support a thank-you screen and one simple conditional branch.
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 payment collection.
Deliberately leave out hundreds of third-party integrations.
Deliberately leave out multi-brand enterprise workspaces and compliance attestations.
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:

- Polished UX, spam controls, integrations, and reliable hosted delivery.
- Advanced branching.
- Payment and CRM integrations.
- Large template libraries.
- Connectors, OAuth flows, and vendor API changes require constant upkeep.
- Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.

## 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: high. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

## Prior art

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

- [Formbricks](https://github.com/formbricks/formbricks) — Active open-source survey and experience-management platform

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