A lending library for neighborhood tools
Level 2: two to three weeks, real architecture. Use with: build-web-app, database-basics, auth-basics. Resume line when done: Built {project_name}, a lending-library system with member auth and loan tracking — live at {url}
Brief
A lending system for physical things your street or building already shares informally: ladders, drills, camping gear, a sewing machine, board games. Owners list items, members sign in to request a loan, and the system tracks who has what and when it is due. The catalog is browsable by anyone; borrowing requires an account approved by you, so the member list stays actual neighbors. Data and sign-in live on Supabase's free tier; the frontend deploys free on Netlify or Vercel. No deposits and no fees; the system tracks possession only.
Personalize
- The neighbors. Start with three or four households you know. Walk over and ask what they would lend and what they would want to borrow; that conversation is the real product research.
- The item list. Real objects with photos you took, owned by named people who agreed to lend them.
- The trust rules. Loan length, renewals, what happens when something comes back broken. Write the rules with the owners, in plain language, on the site.
Milestones
- README first: item, member, loan, and the loan lifecycle from requested to returned.
- Database tables plus a seeded catalog of ten real items with photos and owner consent.
- Public catalog live by end of week one: browsable at a real URL, each item showing available or on loan.
- Accounts: sign-up requests land in an approval queue only you can accept, keeping membership to real neighbors.
- Borrowing: a signed-in member requests an item, the owner approves, the item shows on loan with a due date.
- Returns and overdues: mark returned, and a signed-in view of what is out, sorted by lateness.
- Unhappy paths: two requests for the same item, a member with an overdue item requesting more, an owner delisting an item that is currently out.
- Real loans: at least three items borrowed and returned by actual neighbors. Watch one handoff happen.
- Final README: schema and rules in your words, plus the story of the first real loan.
Done means
- Live URL; catalog reads from the hosted database
- At least four real neighbor accounts, approved by you
- At least three completed real loans, request through return
- Loan actions require sign-in; the public catalog shows no member contact details
- Data survives redeploys; item photos are yours
- Owner consent recorded per item; members can be removed along with their data
- At least 20 commits across at least 12 distinct days; SESSIONS.md has an entry per session, written by you