Customer supportCAN I VIBECODE
Front?
BUILD FIRST
- A non-sensitive or read-only version of the core experience
- A manual review step wherever correctness or trust matters
- A narrow companion tool that removes a real piece of work
LEAVE FOR LATER
- Regulated decisions, payments, or irreversible actions
- Claims of correctness, compliance, or uptime that the MVP cannot support
- Sensitive integrations until security, support, and auditability are ready
RESEARCH NOTES
What this tool actually does.
Front (front.com) is an AI-powered customer operations / customer service platform built around a shared team inbox. It consolidates email, chat, SMS, voice, and other channels into one workspace so support teams collaborate on conversations instead of working in silos. Core workflow: conversations arrive from multiple channels, then are routed, escalated, or 'looped in' to the right team with full customer context and shared visibility. It offers a customer-facing ticketing portal for live request tracking, a web chat widget, 160+ integrations, and no-code workflow automation. Front markets itself for complex, high-stakes B2B support operations and enterprise accountability, with a free 14-day trial. It positions itself as an omnichannel customer service suite, distinct from simple AI-chatbot-only tools.
RESEARCHED BUILD PROMPT
Give this to your coding agent.
Build 'Relay', a self-hosted replacement for Front (front.com), the AI-powered omnichannel customer operations platform. Core workflow: agents work from a shared team inbox where email, web chat, SMS, and voice messages land as unified conversations; any agent can claim, comment on, or reassign a conversation; conversations are routed by rules to the right team, escalated on SLA breach, and other teams can be 'looped in' via @mentions; every message shows full customer context and history across channels. User-facing requirements: unified conversation list with filters (channel, assignee, status, tags), split-pane composer with email/chat/SMS reply modes, internal comments and mentions, customer timeline sidebar, a ticketing portal where customers track request status, a live web chat widget, SLA timers, and analytics dashboards (volume, response time, resolution time). Technical requirements: Node.js/TypeScript backend with Postgres and Redis; WebSocket for real-time updates; REST + WebSocket API; OAuth2 login; role-based access (admin, agent, viewer); webhook support; conversation import/export; Docker Compose deployment; end-to-end tests for routing and escalation flows. Implementation approach: React frontend with a shared-inbox UI; message ingestion adapters per channel (IMAP/SMTP for email, WebSocket for chat, Twilio for SMS); a rules engine for routing/escalation; Postgres with full-text search; Redis for presence and queues. Do not copy Front's brand, logo, marketing copy, or UI design; build an original interface. Out of scope: AI copilot features, the 160+ third-party integrations, voice call handling, mobile apps, and multi-tenant SaaS billing. Include a README with setup steps, architecture overview, and known limitations (e.g., no AI auto-replies, single-tenant only).