TradeQuote — AI Back Office for Small Contractors
Turn a tradesperson's site-visit voice note into a professional, branded quote — then handle invoicing and payment chasing — powered by a per-contractor knowledge layer that learns their rates, suppliers, and past jobs.
Target user: 2–10 person trade businesses (builders, electricians, plumbers, roofers).
Full build plan: docs/build-plan.pdf
Stack
| Layer | Choice |
|---|
| Frontend | Next.js (App Router) PWA, Tailwind |
| Backend | Next.js API routes (TypeScript) |
| Database | Postgres (Supabase) + pgvector |
| Auth | Supabase Auth |
| Speech-to-text | OpenAI Whisper API |
| LLM | Anthropic (quote drafting, chasing) + OpenAI (voice, embeddings) |
| Payments | Stripe Pay by Bank (customer payments + application fees at source) |
| PDF generation | react-pdf / Puppeteer |
| Email/SMS | Resend + Twilio (SMS wired and active) |
| Hosting | Vercel + Supabase |
Product phases
- Phase 0 — Voice-first setup wizard (onboarding)
- Phase 1 — Quoting MVP (build first)
- Phase 2 — Invoicing & payment chasing
- Phase 3 — Knowledge layer (per-contractor semantic memory)
Guardrails
- Human in the loop, always — drafts are never sent without contractor review.
- Money accuracy is non-negotiable: all arithmetic done in code, never by the LLM.
- Flag assumptions explicitly in every AI-generated quote.
- Keep it light — no feature that requires training the contractor.
Development
npm install
npm run dev
Address autocomplete (Google Places)
Every address field (business address in setup, client + site address on a
contract) uses the reusable <AddressAutocomplete> component
(src/components/ui/address-autocomplete.tsx), which wraps the Google Places
API (New) and is restricted to Great Britain. On selection it stores the
formatted address plus structured components (line 1/2, town/city, county,
postcode, lat/lng, place ID). If the script fails to load or the contractor
ignores the dropdown, whatever they typed still saves — selection is never
required.
Setup
-
In Google Cloud Console create (or pick)
a project and enable the Places API (New) and Maps JavaScript API
under APIs & Services → Library.
-
Create an API key under APIs & Services → Credentials.
-
Restrict the key (do this before shipping):
- Application restrictions → Websites (HTTP referrers): add your domains,
e.g.
http://localhost:3000/*, https://*.vercel.app/*, and your
production domain https://yourdomain.com/*.
- API restrictions → Restrict key: allow only Places API (New) and
Maps JavaScript API.
-
Add the key to your environment. It's a browser key (NEXT_PUBLIC_), so it is
visible to clients — the referrer restriction above is what protects it:
NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=your-key
Leaving the variable unset simply disables autocomplete; address fields fall
back to plain text entry.
