The Footsteps Devotional

A multi-series devotional library, built with Next.js and deployed on Vercel. The landing page is a library; each devotional series lives at its own path. The first series — Church History (/footsteps) — is a 365-day journey through two thousand years of the church.

Status: Live. Church History complete — 365 entries across five volumes (~158,000 words). Biblical Leadership in progress. Spiritual Formation mapped (365-day plan + starter entries; coming-soon). Live at: footstepsdevotional.com

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Running locally

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

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Deploying

Push to GitHub. Vercel auto-deploys on every commit.

git add .
git commit -m "Your message"
git push

Domain & SEO

The public origin lives in one place — lib/site.ts (SITE_URL). Metadata (app/layout.tsx), per-entry Open Graph/canonical tags, app/sitemap.ts, and app/robots.ts all read from it. If the domain ever changes, update that one constant. The custom domain footstepsdevotional.com is attached to the project in the Vercel dashboard (Project → Settings → Domains).

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Adding a new devotional series

Series are data, not code — the library, routing, reader, progress, and sitemap all read from a registry. To add one:

1. Add a Series entry to lib/series.ts (slug, title, accent, sections, hero copy, status).
2. Add its content file data/series/<slug>.json and wire it into ENTRIES in lib/series-data.ts.
3. Flip status to live. It now appears in the library and at /<slug>, /<slug>/journey, /<slug>/entry/[day], and /<slug>/bookmarks automatically.

npm run validate (also run automatically before every build) checks each series file — required fields present, contiguous day numbers, a source on every entry — so a malformed series fails the build rather than shipping.

The historical series intentionally keeps its content at the original data/entries.json path, untouched.

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Project structure

data/
  entries.json              — Church History entries (untouched original path)
  series/<slug>.json        — additional series' entries

app/
  page.tsx                  — the library landing page (series selector)
  [series]/page.tsx         — a series home (hero, featured entry, sections)
  [series]/journey/page.tsx — full entry browser for a series
  [series]/entry/[day]/     — individual entry reader
  [series]/bookmarks/       — saved entries for a series

components/
  LibraryCard.tsx           — a series card on the library page
  EntryReader.tsx           — the four-part reading UI (shared by all series)
  JourneyClient.tsx         — journey list (read dots, bookmark indicators)
  BookmarksClient.tsx       — saved-entries list (shared)
  ProgressBar.tsx           — personal progress card on a series home

lib/
  series.ts                 — series registry (config; client-safe)
  series-data.ts            — entry data access (server-only)
  types.ts                  — Entry type + colour palette
  storage.ts                — per-series localStorage progress & bookmarks
  site.ts                   — public origin / SITE_URL

scripts/
  validate-content.mjs      — content integrity gate (runs before build)

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Volume structure

Vol	Title	Era	Days	Year range
1	Blood & Fire	The Early Church	1–73	30–325 AD
2	Councils & Confessions	The Age of Doctrine	74–146	313–600 AD
3	Darkness & Light	The Medieval Church	147–219	600–1517 AD
4	Here I Stand	The Reformation	220–292	1500–1700 AD
5	Fire in the World	The Modern Church	293–365	1700–Present

Note: Vol 1–2 intentionally overlap at 313–325 AD. The Edict of Milan (313) opens the Constantinian era while Nicaea (325) closes the early church era.

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Entry structure

Each entry in data/entries.json follows this shape:

{
  "day": 1,
  "volume": 1,
  "volumeTitle": "Blood & Fire",
  "volumeSubtitle": "The Early Church",
  "volumeYears": "30–325 AD",
  "title": "The fire falls",
  "figure": "Pentecost",
  "era": "Jerusalem",
  "dateLabel": "30 AD",
  "moment": "Narrative scene. Paragraphs separated by \\n\\n.",
  "voiceQuote": "Quote text without quotation marks",
  "voiceAttribution": "Name, Source, Date",
  "scriptureRef": "Acts 2:1",
  "scriptureText": "Scripture without quotation marks",
  "weight": "Reflection. Paragraphs separated by \\n\\n.",
  "notes": {
    "primary": "Primary source documentation",
    "tradition": "Later tradition note, or null",
    "archaeological": "Physical evidence, or null",
    "confidence": "high | medium | tradition"
  }
}

The notes field powers the expandable Historical Sources section at the bottom of each entry.

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Reader features

All built on localStorage (no account required):

• Read tracking — automatically marks entries read on visit
• Bookmarks — ◇/◆ button on each entry saves to /bookmarks
• Continue reading — homepage shows "Continue — Day X →" once started
• Progress display — personal read count and % on homepage
• Journey indicators — colored dots show read/unread on the full entry list

When Supabase is added, swap lib/storage.ts for database calls. All UI stays the same.

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Making corrections

See CORRECTIONS.md for the working list of content fixes. When a correction is identified:

1. Open data/entries.json
2. Find the entry by day number
3. Make the targeted fix
4. Add a note to CORRECTIONS.md
5. Commit and push

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Planned future work

• Next devotional series — The Upheaval (the series to follow Spiritual Formation; supersedes the earlier "Relationships" idea)
• Supabase auth + user accounts (cross-device sync)
• Stripe paywall (Volumes 2–5 behind subscription)
• Historical Notes appendix export for print edition
• Mobile app (iOS/Android via footstepsbibleapp.com)
• Audio narration per entry

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Matt Blair · footstepsbibleapp.com