An example prompt for a collaboration app

Build a shared whiteboard for remote workshops. It needs: document and workspace model, crdt sync engine (update log), update fan-out over sse, presence and cursors, snapshots, compaction and version history and offline edits and reconnect. Rule that must always hold: clients hold a Yjs CRDT; each local change is a small binary update that commutes and is idempotent. The server persists updates as an ordered, append-only log and relays them; it never transforms operations. Leave out for now: no dedicated websocket tier, Redis pub/sub or message broker in phase 1 and no server-side interpretation or merge of document semantics (the server orders and stores opaque CRDT bytes).

Replace the first sentence with your own idea. The list of needs stays useful whatever the niche, because it comes from what a collaboration app has to do.

• Build a collaborative document editor for a writing team. Start with document and workspace model and crdt sync engine (update log), and add update fan-out over sse once those work.
• Build a live planning board for a product team. People should be able to show who is in the document, their cursor/selection and which object they are editing.

Forge AI picks a reference architecture from how you describe the app. These phrases point to a collaboration app: figma, notion, google docs, miro, real-time collaboration, realtime collaboration, collaborative editor and collaborative editing.

• CRDT (Yjs) update log instead of operational transform.
• SSE + POST over Postgres in phase 1, websocket sync tier in phase 2.
• Append-only update log with periodic snapshots and compaction.
• Hard limits on document size, room size and update rate, failing closed.

This is a reference design for the category, not a promise that every item is generated today. Built-ins such as email, background jobs, file uploads and search are coming soon, so anything here that needs them is something you add yourself for now.

• Dedicated websocket sync tier (Yjs protocol, one owner node per document): SSE + POST over Postgres meets collaboration latency for typical rooms and keeps the stack small.
• Redis or NATS pub/sub for cross-node fan-out: LISTEN/NOTIFY is enough until notify throughput or listener count becomes the bottleneck.
• Read replicas for history, comments and search: primary handles phase-1 load.
• Dedicated search engine (OpenSearch/Typesense): Postgres FTS is sufficient at phase-1 volume.

How detailed should a prompt for a collaboration app be?

Name the users, the main objects, one rule that must always hold and one thing to leave out. The plan fills in the rest, and you can change it before generation.

Which words tell Forge64 this is a collaboration app?

Phrases such as figma, notion, google docs and miro point to this category.

Can I change the app after the first build?

Yes. Describe the change in plain English and Forge AI edits the app; the quality gate checks the code again.

• How to build a collaboration app
• Collaboration app architecture
• Collaboration app security checklist
• Collaboration app scaling checklist
• Often combined: SaaS dashboard
• Often combined: AI document chatbot
• All app types