Kill My Idea

September 18, 2026 · View on GitHub

Describe a startup idea. Jev decides: KILL IT, FIX IT or SHIP IT.

No generative LLM. One request asks TypeSafe Jev 10 questions in parallel: 8 plain indie-hacker questions scored 0–4, plus the category and whether the idea is understandable.

$ \text{idea} → \text{Jev} (8 \text{scores}) → \text{each} \times 25 → \text{weighted} \text{average} → \text{clarity} \text{gate} → \text{KILL} / \text{FIX} / \text{SHIP} $

1. Install

npm install

2. Environment

cp .env.example .env

TYPESAFE_API_KEY=your_key

The key is only read by api/evaluate.ts and never reaches the browser.

Successful evaluations are archived in SQLite at data/analytics.sqlite by default. Set ANALYTICS_DB_PATH to an absolute path on a persistent disk in production. Users can opt out per request with the checkbox below private history.

SITE_URL (optional) sets the absolute URL used in the OG/Twitter image tags. It defaults to https://killmyidea.stemonte.io. The image itself is public/og.png (1200×630).

For UI work without a key, set TYPESAFE_MOCK=1. The API then returns deterministic fake answers labelled MOCK DATA in the raw-data panel. Mock mode is ignored on Vercel.

3. Run locally

npm run dev          # http://127.0.0.1:5317 (serves /api/evaluate too)
npm test             # unit tests
npm run benchmark    # balanced scoring benchmark; requires the app to be running

Every result has a collapsed "How Jev decided" panel with raw Jev answers, probabilities, confidence, the average, the verdict, latency and token usage. ?debug=1 opens it by default.

4. Build

npm run build        # typecheck + static build in dist/

5. Deploy to Vercel

  1. Import the repo in Vercel. The framework is detected as Vite.
  2. Add TYPESAFE_API_KEY under Project → Settings → Environment Variables.
  3. Deploy. dist/ is served statically and api/evaluate.ts becomes the only function.

Or use the CLI: npx vercel --prod.

SQLite needs a persistent local disk. It works directly with the Node server (npm run build:server && npm start) and hosts such as Forge. Vercel Functions do not provide a durable filesystem, so use a persistent deployment or replace the archive adapter before relying on the collected data there.

6. Scoring

src/lib/scoring.ts and src/lib/verdict.ts. That's all there is:

  • each question: Jev score 0–4 × 25 → 0–100
  • score = weighted average of the 8 questions (WEIGHTS)
  • Make money weights Real problem and Money twice; Open source replaces Money with Adoption; Just for fun replaces Real problem and Money with Immediate appeal and Fun. The two goal-defining questions always count twice. The API takes goal (money default, open_source, fun).
  • KILL below 50 · FIX 50–64 · SHIP 65+ (VERDICT_THRESHOLDS)
  • if understandability is below 0.3, the raw scores are retained for analysis but the UI asks for more detail instead of presenting a score or verdict
  • SCORING_VERSION identifies the exact questions, weights, thresholds and gating semantics

BEST SIGNAL / BIGGEST RISK are the highest / lowest question, with fixed copy in src/lib/copy.ts.

7. Jev questions

src/lib/questions.ts: Real problem, Clear customer, Demand, Money, Reach, Different, Buildable, Shareable, plus Adoption, Immediate appeal and Fun for goal-specific scoring. Each has five levels written as concrete situations (Jev judges each level on its own). The HTTP client is src/lib/typesafe.ts.

Layout

api/evaluate.ts           serverless endpoint (validate → Jev → score → respond)
api/stats.ts              serverless endpoint (ideas submitted + verdict split, 5-min cache)
api/_analytics-db.ts      SQLite archive for evaluation requests and scores
api/_mock.ts              local-only fake answers
src/lib/questions.ts      Jev questions
src/lib/scoring.ts        0-4 → 0-100, average
src/lib/verdict.ts        KILL / FIX / SHIP thresholds
src/lib/copy.ts           fixed copy per question
src/lib/storage.ts        history (IdeaStore interface, localStorage implementation)
src/lib/share.ts          share text and X intent URL
src/lib/features.ts       public site and repository URLs
src/components/           UI
benchmarks/cases.json     balanced, synthetic benchmark cases
scripts/run-scoring-benchmark.mjs  benchmark runner and summary

Analytics (DataFast, cookieless)

Production builds load DataFast's cookieless script (script.cookieless.js) with the site id dfid_UvVlC3fid8kOr95YTMIho (vite.config.ts). Dev builds only track when DATAFAST_WEBSITE_ID is set; DATAFAST_WEBSITE_ID=off disables tracking. DATAFAST_DOMAIN defaults to killmyidea.stemonte.io. In DataFast, enable Settings → General → Cookieless / privacy mode so the dashboard matches the script.

There is one custom goal (src/lib/analytics.ts): idea_submitted, with length, saved, and archived params. The idea text is never sent to DataFast.

Evaluation archive (SQLite)

Unless the user checks the opt-out, each successful evaluation creates one row in the evaluations table. It includes the idea, scoring version, total score, raw verdict, clarity-gate status, category, all eight dimension scores, understandability, latency, model, token usage and the complete diagnostic response JSON. It deliberately excludes IP addresses, cookies and browser identifiers.

For example:

sqlite3 data/analytics.sqlite \
  'SELECT scoring_version, goal, COUNT(*), ROUND(AVG(score), 1) FROM evaluations GROUP BY scoring_version, goal;'

Rows collected before scoring v2 are migrated without being reinterpreted: they remain scoring_version = 1, while v2 stores the new appeal score for fun ideas. To export:

sqlite3 -header -csv data/analytics.sqlite 'SELECT * FROM evaluations;' > evaluations.csv

Scoring benchmark

benchmarks/cases.json contains two similarly detailed, synthetic ideas for each category. The runner evaluates every case against all three goals and always sends doNotArchive: true. With the app running against Jev:

BENCHMARK_RUNS=3 npm run benchmark

It reports score and verdict distributions by goal, category accuracy, clarity gates and repeat-score range. The full JSON is written to the ignored benchmarks/results/latest.json; set BENCHMARK_URL to test a deployed instance.

.mcp.json registers the official DataFast MCP server (https://datafa.st/api/mcp). In Claude Code, run /mcp and sign in with OAuth to query these analytics.

Privacy

  • Private history is off by default and stays in the browser's localStorage. There are no accounts.
  • Successful evaluations are archived server-side for product analysis by default; the form provides an explicit opt-out.
  • DataFast never receives idea text. To move private history to Supabase, implement IdeaStore in src/lib/storage.ts.