Marketing · Tonight build
Build your own QR Tiger
Squares that send people wherever you say. Even later. QR Tiger charges $15–$49 per month — that’s $180–$588 a year — for something you can replace with focused software of your own. Here is the honest scope, the honest timeline, and the exact prompt to hand your coding agent.
Who this replacement is for
This build targets a marketer putting QR codes on menus, posters, and packaging. The goal: generate branded codes whose destinations stay editable and know when they get scanned. If you need more than that, keep paying — the point of building it yourself is owning a tool shaped exactly like your workflow, not re-implementing a venture-funded roadmap.
Same build, different logo: this v1 also replaces Flowcode and Uniqode — they all solve the same core job.
How long it actually takes
One number would be a lie, so here are three. Each tier is a real, usable product — pick the one that matches how much of QR Tiger you actually use.
| Estimate | What you get |
|---|---|
| 90 min | styled codes, editable redirects, daily scan counts |
| 4 hours | svg export, bulk creation, utm tagging, expiry dates |
| 1 month+ | accounts, campaigns, landing pages, gps analytics, api — the part you should probably skip |
What a minimal QR Tiger alternative needs
- QR codes with custom foreground, background, and a centered logo
- short redirect URLs so destinations stay editable after printing
- error-correction and contrast checks that keep styled codes scannable
- PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes
- daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals
Data model
Code, RedirectRule, ScanEvent
Integrations
QR encoding library
Capability context
Astro, Workers, D1
The guardrail
Validate destinations as http or https, keep redirects fast, and record scans without cookies, fingerprints, or precise location.
Deliberate non-goals
Do not build landing pages, GPS tracking, team workspaces, white-label domains, or a public API.
The complete build prompt
Copy this into your coding agent of choice. It is scoped for a useful v1 — journeys, screens, business rules, data model, security, tests, and acceptance scenarios included. Pick your stack:
You are building a production-ready software product named “Squarecode”, a deliberately focused alternative to QR Tiger. Build a complete, usable vertical slice—not a landing page, static mockup, or disconnected collection of components. WORKING AGREEMENT Before writing implementation code, produce a short technical plan that names the routes or pages, server actions or endpoints, data tables, important state transitions, authorization boundaries, background jobs, and external adapters. Resolve contradictions in favor of the narrow audience and non-goals below. Prefer a small, legible architecture over speculative abstraction, but do not omit persistence, validation, error handling, or tests. PRODUCT BRIEF Primary user: a marketer putting QR codes on menus, posters, and packaging. Primary outcome: generate branded codes whose destinations stay editable and know when they get scanned. Product principle: optimize the exact workflow below instead of copying the full breadth of QR Tiger. A first-time user should understand what to do from the interface itself, without a tour or documentation. END-TO-END USER JOURNEYS Implement all of these flows through the real interface and persistent data layer: 1. The owner pastes a destination URL, styles the code with brand colors and a centered logo, downloads the PNG, and sends it to print. 2. The owner edits the destination behind an already printed code and confirms a fresh scan lands on the new URL. 3. The owner opens the dashboard after a launch and reads daily scan counts to see which placement actually performed. SCREENS AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Build these as coherent responsive views. Each screen must specify its primary action, secondary actions, visible status, validation feedback, empty state, loading or pending state, success confirmation, and recoverable failure state. 1. Codes list: every code with thumbnail, short URL, destination, total scans, and edit, download, and disable actions. 2. Code editor: destination URL, short slug, foreground and background colors, logo upload, error-correction level, and a live scannable preview. 3. Export view: PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes with a scannability check on the styled result. 4. Analytics: daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals and a zero-state explaining when data will appear. CORE CAPABILITIES 1. QR codes with custom foreground, background, and a centered logo 2. short redirect URLs so destinations stay editable after printing 3. error-correction and contrast checks that keep styled codes scannable 4. PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes 5. daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals DETAILED BEHAVIOR AND BUSINESS RULES Treat these as server-enforced product requirements, not interface suggestions: 1. Encode only the short redirect URL in the image, never the destination, so printed codes stay editable forever. 2. Raise the error-correction level automatically when a logo is present and warn when foreground and background contrast is too low to scan. 3. Validate destinations as http or https, reject unsafe protocols and redirect loops, and keep the redirect response fast and cache-friendly. 4. Record a scan as date, code, and coarse device category only; set no cookies and store no IP addresses or precise location. DATA MODEL AND LIFECYCLE Design a small relational schema centered on Code, RedirectRule, ScanEvent. Before implementing it, document: 1. Each table’s purpose, primary key, ownership or tenant boundary, timestamps, status fields, and important attributes. 2. Foreign keys, uniqueness constraints, check constraints, indexes needed by the named screens, and transaction boundaries for multi-record changes. 3. The allowed lifecycle or state transitions, who may trigger each transition, which transitions are terminal or reversible, and what audit history must remain immutable. 4. Archive, retention, and deletion behavior, including what happens to dependent records and external files. 5. Idempotency strategy for submissions, jobs, imports, notifications, webhooks, or retries where applicable. Use migrations rather than ad-hoc schema creation. Store time instants consistently and retain named timezone context whenever local schedules or dates matter. Never rely on a counter, disabled button, or client-side check to preserve a business invariant. USERS, AUTHENTICATION, AND PERMISSIONS Implement only the roles required by the stated audience. Make the ownership and visibility model explicit before coding. Enforce authorization in every server-side query and mutation, including search, exports, attachments, live updates, and guessed URLs—not merely by hiding controls. Use secure session defaults, protect state-changing requests, and provide an understandable signed-out, expired-session, and forbidden state. Seed distinct users when multiple roles are required so permissions can be demonstrated and tested. INTERACTION AND VISUAL DIRECTION The product should feel fast, calm, focused, and credible rather than like a generic admin template. Use a clear visual hierarchy, restrained color, readable typography, generous hit targets, and consistent placement for primary actions. Start with server-rendered HTML and progressively enhance only the interactions that benefit from it. The core workflow must remain understandable if enhancement fails. Start with server-rendered Astro pages and ordinary HTML forms. Use HTMX for form submissions, partial navigation, and server-driven updates, then Alpine.js only for small local browser state. The core workflow must remain understandable if either enhancement layer fails. Design mobile layouts intentionally instead of simply stacking desktop panels. Support keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic landmarks, explicit labels, useful page titles, reduced-motion preferences, and screen-reader announcements for asynchronous results. Never use color alone to communicate state. Destructive actions require clear scope and confirmation; safe repeated actions should be idempotent. TECHNICAL DIRECTION Build this version with the AHA stack: Astro for routing, layouts, and server-rendered pages; HTMX for interactions that benefit from HTML fragment responses; and Alpine.js for small, local interface state. Prefer Cloudflare D1 for relational persistence, R2 for object storage, Workers for server endpoints and scheduled work, Durable Objects only for coordinated real-time state, and Workflows or Queues for durable background jobs—but only when the product requirements call for them. Keep domain rules in testable server-side modules instead of route handlers or UI components. Separate persistence, external providers, and background work behind small interfaces without building a framework. Prefer ordinary HTML forms and URLs for durable navigation; use optimistic interaction only when failure can be reconciled clearly. The product brief currently identifies Astro, Workers, D1 as capability context. Preserve any required native, browser-only, edge, storage, real-time, or background-processing capability through a narrow adapter appropriate to the selected framework. If the core workflow genuinely requires native or browser APIs, keep that runtime as the primary execution surface rather than simulating inaccessible capabilities or inventing an unnecessary web surface. Integrate with QR encoding library. For every integration: - List required environment variables in an .env.example without real secrets. - Add a small adapter with timeouts, normalized errors, and a deterministic local fake or development path. - Verify inbound signatures and deduplicate provider events where supported. - Keep credentials server-side, encrypt long-lived provider tokens at rest, and redact secrets and sensitive payloads from logs. - Define retry, backoff, and idempotency behavior for any side effect that can be repeated. SECURITY AND PRIVACY Validate destinations as http or https, keep redirects fast, and record scans without cookies, fingerprints, or precise location. Validate, normalize, and length-limit all untrusted input on the server. Escape rendered content by default, sanitize any intentionally accepted markup, rate-limit public or abuse-prone actions, and use private object storage plus short-lived authorized URLs for sensitive files. Collect the minimum personal data necessary for the named workflow. Document retention and deletion behavior. Add specific protections for the riskier surfaces in this app, such as uploads, redirects, outbound requests, email delivery, OAuth, webhooks, CSV import or export, and real-time connections. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIOS Automate these app-specific scenarios at the most appropriate level: 1. Given a code styled with a logo and brand colors, a phone camera scan resolves the redirect and lands on the destination. 2. Given an edited destination, the already printed code keeps working and the very next scan reaches the new URL. 3. Given a disabled code, scans reach a polite this-code-is-off page instead of the old destination. TESTING Add focused unit tests for state transitions, authorization predicates, normalization, date or money calculations, and other risky domain rules. Add integration tests for persistence constraints and each external adapter’s success, timeout, retry, and rejection paths. Add at least one browser-level test for every end-to-end journey above, including one small-screen viewport. Tests must use isolated data and run through a documented single command. OPERATIONS AND FAILURE RECOVERY Add structured server logs with request, job, or event correlation IDs but no secrets or unnecessarily sensitive data. Make failures actionable in both the interface and logs. Background work must expose pending, succeeded, failed, and retrying states where relevant; do not silently swallow errors. Include safe database migration and rollback guidance, seed data, backup and restore notes, external-data cleanup behavior, and a basic health or diagnostic path appropriate to the stack. DELIVERABLES Ship the working application, migrations, representative seed data, tests, .env.example, and a concise README. The README must cover prerequisites, local setup, environment variables, migrations, seed and test commands, deployment, integration setup, backup and restore, security decisions, and known limitations. Seed data should exercise the happy path plus at least one empty, failed, overdue, expired, archived, or permission-restricted state relevant to the product. DEFINITION OF DONE The app is complete when a fresh developer can follow the README, create and migrate the database, run the app, sign in as each relevant role, complete every named journey using real persisted data, refresh without losing state, recover from common failures, and use the core interface on phone and desktop. All acceptance scenarios pass, permission boundaries are covered by tests, and no core screen is left as a placeholder. NON-GOALS Do not build landing pages, GPS tracking, team workspaces, white-label domains, or a public API.
You are building a production-ready software product named “Squarecode”, a deliberately focused alternative to QR Tiger. Build a complete, usable vertical slice—not a landing page, static mockup, or disconnected collection of components. WORKING AGREEMENT Before writing implementation code, produce a short technical plan that names the routes or pages, server actions or endpoints, data tables, important state transitions, authorization boundaries, background jobs, and external adapters. Resolve contradictions in favor of the narrow audience and non-goals below. Prefer a small, legible architecture over speculative abstraction, but do not omit persistence, validation, error handling, or tests. PRODUCT BRIEF Primary user: a marketer putting QR codes on menus, posters, and packaging. Primary outcome: generate branded codes whose destinations stay editable and know when they get scanned. Product principle: optimize the exact workflow below instead of copying the full breadth of QR Tiger. A first-time user should understand what to do from the interface itself, without a tour or documentation. END-TO-END USER JOURNEYS Implement all of these flows through the real interface and persistent data layer: 1. The owner pastes a destination URL, styles the code with brand colors and a centered logo, downloads the PNG, and sends it to print. 2. The owner edits the destination behind an already printed code and confirms a fresh scan lands on the new URL. 3. The owner opens the dashboard after a launch and reads daily scan counts to see which placement actually performed. SCREENS AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Build these as coherent responsive views. Each screen must specify its primary action, secondary actions, visible status, validation feedback, empty state, loading or pending state, success confirmation, and recoverable failure state. 1. Codes list: every code with thumbnail, short URL, destination, total scans, and edit, download, and disable actions. 2. Code editor: destination URL, short slug, foreground and background colors, logo upload, error-correction level, and a live scannable preview. 3. Export view: PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes with a scannability check on the styled result. 4. Analytics: daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals and a zero-state explaining when data will appear. CORE CAPABILITIES 1. QR codes with custom foreground, background, and a centered logo 2. short redirect URLs so destinations stay editable after printing 3. error-correction and contrast checks that keep styled codes scannable 4. PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes 5. daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals DETAILED BEHAVIOR AND BUSINESS RULES Treat these as server-enforced product requirements, not interface suggestions: 1. Encode only the short redirect URL in the image, never the destination, so printed codes stay editable forever. 2. Raise the error-correction level automatically when a logo is present and warn when foreground and background contrast is too low to scan. 3. Validate destinations as http or https, reject unsafe protocols and redirect loops, and keep the redirect response fast and cache-friendly. 4. Record a scan as date, code, and coarse device category only; set no cookies and store no IP addresses or precise location. DATA MODEL AND LIFECYCLE Design a small relational schema centered on Code, RedirectRule, ScanEvent. Before implementing it, document: 1. Each table’s purpose, primary key, ownership or tenant boundary, timestamps, status fields, and important attributes. 2. Foreign keys, uniqueness constraints, check constraints, indexes needed by the named screens, and transaction boundaries for multi-record changes. 3. The allowed lifecycle or state transitions, who may trigger each transition, which transitions are terminal or reversible, and what audit history must remain immutable. 4. Archive, retention, and deletion behavior, including what happens to dependent records and external files. 5. Idempotency strategy for submissions, jobs, imports, notifications, webhooks, or retries where applicable. Use migrations rather than ad-hoc schema creation. Store time instants consistently and retain named timezone context whenever local schedules or dates matter. Never rely on a counter, disabled button, or client-side check to preserve a business invariant. USERS, AUTHENTICATION, AND PERMISSIONS Implement only the roles required by the stated audience. Make the ownership and visibility model explicit before coding. Enforce authorization in every server-side query and mutation, including search, exports, attachments, live updates, and guessed URLs—not merely by hiding controls. Use secure session defaults, protect state-changing requests, and provide an understandable signed-out, expired-session, and forbidden state. Seed distinct users when multiple roles are required so permissions can be demonstrated and tested. INTERACTION AND VISUAL DIRECTION The product should feel fast, calm, focused, and credible rather than like a generic admin template. Use a clear visual hierarchy, restrained color, readable typography, generous hit targets, and consistent placement for primary actions. Start with server-rendered HTML and progressively enhance only the interactions that benefit from it. The core workflow must remain understandable if enhancement fails. Render with React Server Components by default. Use Server Actions for authenticated form mutations and add Client Components only for interactions that genuinely require browser state, browser APIs, drag-and-drop, or live updates. The core workflow must remain understandable before client-side JavaScript finishes loading. Design mobile layouts intentionally instead of simply stacking desktop panels. Support keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic landmarks, explicit labels, useful page titles, reduced-motion preferences, and screen-reader announcements for asynchronous results. Never use color alone to communicate state. Destructive actions require clear scope and confirmation; safe repeated actions should be idempotent. TECHNICAL DIRECTION Build this version with Next.js, the App Router, and TypeScript. Use Server Components by default, Server Actions for authenticated mutations, and Route Handlers for public APIs, OAuth callbacks, webhooks, feeds, uploads, and downloads. Use PostgreSQL through Drizzle ORM with versioned migrations and an isolated test database. Access S3-compatible object storage through a server-only adapter, and run slow or retryable work in a real job or workflow system instead of the request lifecycle. Keep domain rules in testable server-side modules instead of route handlers or UI components. Separate persistence, external providers, and background work behind small interfaces without building a framework. Prefer ordinary HTML forms and URLs for durable navigation; use optimistic interaction only when failure can be reconciled clearly. The product brief currently identifies Astro, Workers, D1 as capability context. Preserve any required native, browser-only, edge, storage, real-time, or background-processing capability through a narrow adapter appropriate to the selected framework. If the core workflow genuinely requires native or browser APIs, keep that runtime as the primary execution surface rather than simulating inaccessible capabilities or inventing an unnecessary web surface. Integrate with QR encoding library. For every integration: - List required environment variables in an .env.example without real secrets. - Add a small adapter with timeouts, normalized errors, and a deterministic local fake or development path. - Verify inbound signatures and deduplicate provider events where supported. - Keep credentials server-side, encrypt long-lived provider tokens at rest, and redact secrets and sensitive payloads from logs. - Define retry, backoff, and idempotency behavior for any side effect that can be repeated. SECURITY AND PRIVACY Validate destinations as http or https, keep redirects fast, and record scans without cookies, fingerprints, or precise location. Validate, normalize, and length-limit all untrusted input on the server. Escape rendered content by default, sanitize any intentionally accepted markup, rate-limit public or abuse-prone actions, and use private object storage plus short-lived authorized URLs for sensitive files. Collect the minimum personal data necessary for the named workflow. Document retention and deletion behavior. Add specific protections for the riskier surfaces in this app, such as uploads, redirects, outbound requests, email delivery, OAuth, webhooks, CSV import or export, and real-time connections. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIOS Automate these app-specific scenarios at the most appropriate level: 1. Given a code styled with a logo and brand colors, a phone camera scan resolves the redirect and lands on the destination. 2. Given an edited destination, the already printed code keeps working and the very next scan reaches the new URL. 3. Given a disabled code, scans reach a polite this-code-is-off page instead of the old destination. TESTING Add focused unit tests for state transitions, authorization predicates, normalization, date or money calculations, and other risky domain rules. Add integration tests for persistence constraints and each external adapter’s success, timeout, retry, and rejection paths. Add at least one browser-level test for every end-to-end journey above, including one small-screen viewport. Tests must use isolated data and run through a documented single command. OPERATIONS AND FAILURE RECOVERY Add structured server logs with request, job, or event correlation IDs but no secrets or unnecessarily sensitive data. Make failures actionable in both the interface and logs. Background work must expose pending, succeeded, failed, and retrying states where relevant; do not silently swallow errors. Include safe database migration and rollback guidance, seed data, backup and restore notes, external-data cleanup behavior, and a basic health or diagnostic path appropriate to the stack. DELIVERABLES Ship the working application, migrations, representative seed data, tests, .env.example, and a concise README. The README must cover prerequisites, local setup, environment variables, migrations, seed and test commands, deployment, integration setup, backup and restore, security decisions, and known limitations. Seed data should exercise the happy path plus at least one empty, failed, overdue, expired, archived, or permission-restricted state relevant to the product. DEFINITION OF DONE The app is complete when a fresh developer can follow the README, create and migrate the database, run the app, sign in as each relevant role, complete every named journey using real persisted data, refresh without losing state, recover from common failures, and use the core interface on phone and desktop. All acceptance scenarios pass, permission boundaries are covered by tests, and no core screen is left as a placeholder. NON-GOALS Do not build landing pages, GPS tracking, team workspaces, white-label domains, or a public API.
You are building a production-ready software product named “Squarecode”, a deliberately focused alternative to QR Tiger. Build a complete, usable vertical slice—not a landing page, static mockup, or disconnected collection of components. WORKING AGREEMENT Before writing implementation code, produce a short technical plan that names the routes or pages, server actions or endpoints, data tables, important state transitions, authorization boundaries, background jobs, and external adapters. Resolve contradictions in favor of the narrow audience and non-goals below. Prefer a small, legible architecture over speculative abstraction, but do not omit persistence, validation, error handling, or tests. PRODUCT BRIEF Primary user: a marketer putting QR codes on menus, posters, and packaging. Primary outcome: generate branded codes whose destinations stay editable and know when they get scanned. Product principle: optimize the exact workflow below instead of copying the full breadth of QR Tiger. A first-time user should understand what to do from the interface itself, without a tour or documentation. END-TO-END USER JOURNEYS Implement all of these flows through the real interface and persistent data layer: 1. The owner pastes a destination URL, styles the code with brand colors and a centered logo, downloads the PNG, and sends it to print. 2. The owner edits the destination behind an already printed code and confirms a fresh scan lands on the new URL. 3. The owner opens the dashboard after a launch and reads daily scan counts to see which placement actually performed. SCREENS AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Build these as coherent responsive views. Each screen must specify its primary action, secondary actions, visible status, validation feedback, empty state, loading or pending state, success confirmation, and recoverable failure state. 1. Codes list: every code with thumbnail, short URL, destination, total scans, and edit, download, and disable actions. 2. Code editor: destination URL, short slug, foreground and background colors, logo upload, error-correction level, and a live scannable preview. 3. Export view: PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes with a scannability check on the styled result. 4. Analytics: daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals and a zero-state explaining when data will appear. CORE CAPABILITIES 1. QR codes with custom foreground, background, and a centered logo 2. short redirect URLs so destinations stay editable after printing 3. error-correction and contrast checks that keep styled codes scannable 4. PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes 5. daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals DETAILED BEHAVIOR AND BUSINESS RULES Treat these as server-enforced product requirements, not interface suggestions: 1. Encode only the short redirect URL in the image, never the destination, so printed codes stay editable forever. 2. Raise the error-correction level automatically when a logo is present and warn when foreground and background contrast is too low to scan. 3. Validate destinations as http or https, reject unsafe protocols and redirect loops, and keep the redirect response fast and cache-friendly. 4. Record a scan as date, code, and coarse device category only; set no cookies and store no IP addresses or precise location. DATA MODEL AND LIFECYCLE Design a small relational schema centered on Code, RedirectRule, ScanEvent. Before implementing it, document: 1. Each table’s purpose, primary key, ownership or tenant boundary, timestamps, status fields, and important attributes. 2. Foreign keys, uniqueness constraints, check constraints, indexes needed by the named screens, and transaction boundaries for multi-record changes. 3. The allowed lifecycle or state transitions, who may trigger each transition, which transitions are terminal or reversible, and what audit history must remain immutable. 4. Archive, retention, and deletion behavior, including what happens to dependent records and external files. 5. Idempotency strategy for submissions, jobs, imports, notifications, webhooks, or retries where applicable. Use migrations rather than ad-hoc schema creation. Store time instants consistently and retain named timezone context whenever local schedules or dates matter. Never rely on a counter, disabled button, or client-side check to preserve a business invariant. USERS, AUTHENTICATION, AND PERMISSIONS Implement only the roles required by the stated audience. Make the ownership and visibility model explicit before coding. Enforce authorization in every server-side query and mutation, including search, exports, attachments, live updates, and guessed URLs—not merely by hiding controls. Use secure session defaults, protect state-changing requests, and provide an understandable signed-out, expired-session, and forbidden state. Seed distinct users when multiple roles are required so permissions can be demonstrated and tested. INTERACTION AND VISUAL DIRECTION The product should feel fast, calm, focused, and credible rather than like a generic admin template. Use a clear visual hierarchy, restrained color, readable typography, generous hit targets, and consistent placement for primary actions. Start with server-rendered HTML and progressively enhance only the interactions that benefit from it. The core workflow must remain understandable if enhancement fails. Start with server-rendered Blade views and ordinary forms. Use Livewire for focused server-driven interactions and Alpine.js only for small local interface state. The core workflow must remain understandable without relying on a client-side application shell. Design mobile layouts intentionally instead of simply stacking desktop panels. Support keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic landmarks, explicit labels, useful page titles, reduced-motion preferences, and screen-reader announcements for asynchronous results. Never use color alone to communicate state. Destructive actions require clear scope and confirmation; safe repeated actions should be idempotent. TECHNICAL DIRECTION Build this version with Laravel, PHP, Blade, Livewire, and Alpine.js. Use controllers and Blade forms for durable navigation, Livewire for focused interactions, Form Requests for validation, Policies and Gates for authorization, and small application actions or services for domain transitions. Use Eloquent with migrations, database constraints, and transactions; Laravel Storage for private S3-compatible files; queued Jobs for retryable work; the Scheduler for recurring work; and Notifications or Mail for email. Keep domain rules in testable server-side modules instead of route handlers or UI components. Separate persistence, external providers, and background work behind small interfaces without building a framework. Prefer ordinary HTML forms and URLs for durable navigation; use optimistic interaction only when failure can be reconciled clearly. The product brief currently identifies Astro, Workers, D1 as capability context. Preserve any required native, browser-only, edge, storage, real-time, or background-processing capability through a narrow adapter appropriate to the selected framework. If the core workflow genuinely requires native or browser APIs, keep that runtime as the primary execution surface rather than simulating inaccessible capabilities or inventing an unnecessary web surface. Integrate with QR encoding library. For every integration: - List required environment variables in an .env.example without real secrets. - Add a small adapter with timeouts, normalized errors, and a deterministic local fake or development path. - Verify inbound signatures and deduplicate provider events where supported. - Keep credentials server-side, encrypt long-lived provider tokens at rest, and redact secrets and sensitive payloads from logs. - Define retry, backoff, and idempotency behavior for any side effect that can be repeated. SECURITY AND PRIVACY Validate destinations as http or https, keep redirects fast, and record scans without cookies, fingerprints, or precise location. Validate, normalize, and length-limit all untrusted input on the server. Escape rendered content by default, sanitize any intentionally accepted markup, rate-limit public or abuse-prone actions, and use private object storage plus short-lived authorized URLs for sensitive files. Collect the minimum personal data necessary for the named workflow. Document retention and deletion behavior. Add specific protections for the riskier surfaces in this app, such as uploads, redirects, outbound requests, email delivery, OAuth, webhooks, CSV import or export, and real-time connections. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIOS Automate these app-specific scenarios at the most appropriate level: 1. Given a code styled with a logo and brand colors, a phone camera scan resolves the redirect and lands on the destination. 2. Given an edited destination, the already printed code keeps working and the very next scan reaches the new URL. 3. Given a disabled code, scans reach a polite this-code-is-off page instead of the old destination. TESTING Add focused unit tests for state transitions, authorization predicates, normalization, date or money calculations, and other risky domain rules. Add integration tests for persistence constraints and each external adapter’s success, timeout, retry, and rejection paths. Add at least one browser-level test for every end-to-end journey above, including one small-screen viewport. Tests must use isolated data and run through a documented single command. OPERATIONS AND FAILURE RECOVERY Add structured server logs with request, job, or event correlation IDs but no secrets or unnecessarily sensitive data. Make failures actionable in both the interface and logs. Background work must expose pending, succeeded, failed, and retrying states where relevant; do not silently swallow errors. Include safe database migration and rollback guidance, seed data, backup and restore notes, external-data cleanup behavior, and a basic health or diagnostic path appropriate to the stack. DELIVERABLES Ship the working application, migrations, representative seed data, tests, .env.example, and a concise README. The README must cover prerequisites, local setup, environment variables, migrations, seed and test commands, deployment, integration setup, backup and restore, security decisions, and known limitations. Seed data should exercise the happy path plus at least one empty, failed, overdue, expired, archived, or permission-restricted state relevant to the product. DEFINITION OF DONE The app is complete when a fresh developer can follow the README, create and migrate the database, run the app, sign in as each relevant role, complete every named journey using real persisted data, refresh without losing state, recover from common failures, and use the core interface on phone and desktop. All acceptance scenarios pass, permission boundaries are covered by tests, and no core screen is left as a placeholder. NON-GOALS Do not build landing pages, GPS tracking, team workspaces, white-label domains, or a public API.
You are building a production-ready software product named “Squarecode”, a deliberately focused alternative to QR Tiger. Build a complete, usable vertical slice—not a landing page, static mockup, or disconnected collection of components. WORKING AGREEMENT Before writing implementation code, produce a short technical plan that names the routes or pages, server actions or endpoints, data tables, important state transitions, authorization boundaries, background jobs, and external adapters. Resolve contradictions in favor of the narrow audience and non-goals below. Prefer a small, legible architecture over speculative abstraction, but do not omit persistence, validation, error handling, or tests. PRODUCT BRIEF Primary user: a marketer putting QR codes on menus, posters, and packaging. Primary outcome: generate branded codes whose destinations stay editable and know when they get scanned. Product principle: optimize the exact workflow below instead of copying the full breadth of QR Tiger. A first-time user should understand what to do from the interface itself, without a tour or documentation. END-TO-END USER JOURNEYS Implement all of these flows through the real interface and persistent data layer: 1. The owner pastes a destination URL, styles the code with brand colors and a centered logo, downloads the PNG, and sends it to print. 2. The owner edits the destination behind an already printed code and confirms a fresh scan lands on the new URL. 3. The owner opens the dashboard after a launch and reads daily scan counts to see which placement actually performed. SCREENS AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Build these as coherent responsive views. Each screen must specify its primary action, secondary actions, visible status, validation feedback, empty state, loading or pending state, success confirmation, and recoverable failure state. 1. Codes list: every code with thumbnail, short URL, destination, total scans, and edit, download, and disable actions. 2. Code editor: destination URL, short slug, foreground and background colors, logo upload, error-correction level, and a live scannable preview. 3. Export view: PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes with a scannability check on the styled result. 4. Analytics: daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals and a zero-state explaining when data will appear. CORE CAPABILITIES 1. QR codes with custom foreground, background, and a centered logo 2. short redirect URLs so destinations stay editable after printing 3. error-correction and contrast checks that keep styled codes scannable 4. PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes 5. daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals DETAILED BEHAVIOR AND BUSINESS RULES Treat these as server-enforced product requirements, not interface suggestions: 1. Encode only the short redirect URL in the image, never the destination, so printed codes stay editable forever. 2. Raise the error-correction level automatically when a logo is present and warn when foreground and background contrast is too low to scan. 3. Validate destinations as http or https, reject unsafe protocols and redirect loops, and keep the redirect response fast and cache-friendly. 4. Record a scan as date, code, and coarse device category only; set no cookies and store no IP addresses or precise location. DATA MODEL AND LIFECYCLE Design a small relational schema centered on Code, RedirectRule, ScanEvent. Before implementing it, document: 1. Each table’s purpose, primary key, ownership or tenant boundary, timestamps, status fields, and important attributes. 2. Foreign keys, uniqueness constraints, check constraints, indexes needed by the named screens, and transaction boundaries for multi-record changes. 3. The allowed lifecycle or state transitions, who may trigger each transition, which transitions are terminal or reversible, and what audit history must remain immutable. 4. Archive, retention, and deletion behavior, including what happens to dependent records and external files. 5. Idempotency strategy for submissions, jobs, imports, notifications, webhooks, or retries where applicable. Use migrations rather than ad-hoc schema creation. Store time instants consistently and retain named timezone context whenever local schedules or dates matter. Never rely on a counter, disabled button, or client-side check to preserve a business invariant. USERS, AUTHENTICATION, AND PERMISSIONS Implement only the roles required by the stated audience. Make the ownership and visibility model explicit before coding. Enforce authorization in every server-side query and mutation, including search, exports, attachments, live updates, and guessed URLs—not merely by hiding controls. Use secure session defaults, protect state-changing requests, and provide an understandable signed-out, expired-session, and forbidden state. Seed distinct users when multiple roles are required so permissions can be demonstrated and tested. INTERACTION AND VISUAL DIRECTION The product should feel fast, calm, focused, and credible rather than like a generic admin template. Use a clear visual hierarchy, restrained color, readable typography, generous hit targets, and consistent placement for primary actions. Start with server-rendered HTML and progressively enhance only the interactions that benefit from it. The core workflow must remain understandable if enhancement fails. Start with server-rendered Rails views and ordinary forms. Use Turbo for navigation, submissions, and server-driven updates, then Stimulus only for small browser-side behavior. Do not turn the product into a client-side SPA, and keep the core workflow usable when enhancement fails. Design mobile layouts intentionally instead of simply stacking desktop panels. Support keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic landmarks, explicit labels, useful page titles, reduced-motion preferences, and screen-reader announcements for asynchronous results. Never use color alone to communicate state. Destructive actions require clear scope and confirmation; safe repeated actions should be idempotent. TECHNICAL DIRECTION Build this version with Ruby on Rails and Hotwire: Turbo for navigation, form submissions, and server-driven updates, and Stimulus for small browser-side behavior. Use RESTful controllers with strong parameters and explicit authorization, with domain transitions in testable models or small application services. Use Active Record migrations plus database-level constraints and transactions; Active Storage with an S3-compatible service for private files; Active Job with a durable queue backend for retryable work; Action Mailer for email; and Action Cable only when live updates are required. Keep domain rules in testable server-side modules instead of route handlers or UI components. Separate persistence, external providers, and background work behind small interfaces without building a framework. Prefer ordinary HTML forms and URLs for durable navigation; use optimistic interaction only when failure can be reconciled clearly. The product brief currently identifies Astro, Workers, D1 as capability context. Preserve any required native, browser-only, edge, storage, real-time, or background-processing capability through a narrow adapter appropriate to the selected framework. If the core workflow genuinely requires native or browser APIs, keep that runtime as the primary execution surface rather than simulating inaccessible capabilities or inventing an unnecessary web surface. Integrate with QR encoding library. For every integration: - List required environment variables in an .env.example without real secrets. - Add a small adapter with timeouts, normalized errors, and a deterministic local fake or development path. - Verify inbound signatures and deduplicate provider events where supported. - Keep credentials server-side, encrypt long-lived provider tokens at rest, and redact secrets and sensitive payloads from logs. - Define retry, backoff, and idempotency behavior for any side effect that can be repeated. SECURITY AND PRIVACY Validate destinations as http or https, keep redirects fast, and record scans without cookies, fingerprints, or precise location. Validate, normalize, and length-limit all untrusted input on the server. Escape rendered content by default, sanitize any intentionally accepted markup, rate-limit public or abuse-prone actions, and use private object storage plus short-lived authorized URLs for sensitive files. Collect the minimum personal data necessary for the named workflow. Document retention and deletion behavior. Add specific protections for the riskier surfaces in this app, such as uploads, redirects, outbound requests, email delivery, OAuth, webhooks, CSV import or export, and real-time connections. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIOS Automate these app-specific scenarios at the most appropriate level: 1. Given a code styled with a logo and brand colors, a phone camera scan resolves the redirect and lands on the destination. 2. Given an edited destination, the already printed code keeps working and the very next scan reaches the new URL. 3. Given a disabled code, scans reach a polite this-code-is-off page instead of the old destination. TESTING Add focused unit tests for state transitions, authorization predicates, normalization, date or money calculations, and other risky domain rules. Add integration tests for persistence constraints and each external adapter’s success, timeout, retry, and rejection paths. Add at least one browser-level test for every end-to-end journey above, including one small-screen viewport. Tests must use isolated data and run through a documented single command. OPERATIONS AND FAILURE RECOVERY Add structured server logs with request, job, or event correlation IDs but no secrets or unnecessarily sensitive data. Make failures actionable in both the interface and logs. Background work must expose pending, succeeded, failed, and retrying states where relevant; do not silently swallow errors. Include safe database migration and rollback guidance, seed data, backup and restore notes, external-data cleanup behavior, and a basic health or diagnostic path appropriate to the stack. DELIVERABLES Ship the working application, migrations, representative seed data, tests, .env.example, and a concise README. The README must cover prerequisites, local setup, environment variables, migrations, seed and test commands, deployment, integration setup, backup and restore, security decisions, and known limitations. Seed data should exercise the happy path plus at least one empty, failed, overdue, expired, archived, or permission-restricted state relevant to the product. DEFINITION OF DONE The app is complete when a fresh developer can follow the README, create and migrate the database, run the app, sign in as each relevant role, complete every named journey using real persisted data, refresh without losing state, recover from common failures, and use the core interface on phone and desktop. All acceptance scenarios pass, permission boundaries are covered by tests, and no core screen is left as a placeholder. NON-GOALS Do not build landing pages, GPS tracking, team workspaces, white-label domains, or a public API.
Build just one piece
Not ready to replace all of QR Tiger? Fine. These are the peculiar sub-problems hiding inside it — the parts that are actually interesting to build. Each one is a standalone prompt, scoped to an evening, no strings attached to the full build.
The redirect that outlives the print runCodes encode a short URL you control, so the destination stays editable forever.
Build the redirect layer behind editable QR codes. Each code encodes a short URL like example.com/r/abc123, never the destination itself. The short slug maps to a destination row you can edit at any time; the next scan after an edit must land on the new URL. That is the tension: you want the redirect fast and cache-friendly, but an aggressively cached 301 makes edits invisible. Use a 302 with short cache headers, and keep the lookup path lean enough to answer in a few milliseconds. Validate destinations on save: http or https only, reject javascript: and data: schemes, and detect loops where a destination points back at your own redirect domain. Disabled codes should serve a polite this-code-is-off page instead of the stale destination, and the change must take effect on the very next scan. Done when: editing a destination changes where the next scan lands, a disabled code never forwards, and the redirect answers in under 50ms.
The scannability check that saves your print budgetLogos eat error correction. Warn before the poster ships, not after.
Build a QR styling validator that keeps pretty codes scannable. Given a QR code with custom foreground and background colors and an optional centered logo, decide whether a phone camera will actually read it. Two checks matter. First, contrast: compute the relative luminance ratio between foreground and background and warn below a safe threshold, remembering that scanners want dark modules on a light field, so an inverted scheme fails even with high contrast. Second, occlusion: a centered logo destroys modules, so when a logo is present, automatically raise the error-correction level to H and cap the logo at a safe fraction of the code area, leaving finder patterns untouched. Prove your own work: after rendering the styled code, decode it with a QR reading library and refuse to export anything that fails a round-trip read. Done when: a low-contrast combo triggers a specific warning, adding a logo silently bumps error correction, and every exported image decodes back to the encoded URL.
The scan counter that never met a cookieDaily per-code totals with no IPs, no fingerprints, no consent banner.
Build scan analytics for QR redirects that store nothing about the scanner. On every redirect, record exactly three things: code id, UTC day bucket, and a coarse device category (phone, tablet, desktop) parsed from the user agent. No cookies, no IP storage, no precise location. Aggregate into a (code_id, day, device) counter row incremented atomically, so two simultaneous scans from a launch-day poster never lose a count. Filter obvious bots and link-preview crawlers by user agent before counting, and fire the redirect immediately while the increment happens asynchronously so tracking never slows a scan. On the dashboard, show daily counts per code with rolling 7- and 30-day totals, plus a zero-state that explains when data will appear so an empty chart doesn't look broken. Done when: concurrent scans all get counted, the database contains no per-scanner data you could hand to a subpoena, and totals match a hammering load test exactly.
The export that speaks millimeters, not pixelsPrint shops want 30mm at 300 DPI with a quiet zone. Do the math for them.
Build a print-ready export flow for QR codes. The user picks a physical size in millimeters or inches and a DPI, and you produce a PNG at the exact pixel dimensions plus an SVG that scales losslessly. Get the details right: pixel size is physical size times DPI divided by 25.4 for millimeters, rounded so each QR module lands on a whole number of pixels, because fractional module widths cause blurry anti-aliased edges that break scanning. Always include the quiet zone, the mandatory 4-module white border that designers love to crop off, and bake it into the exported dimensions rather than trusting the layout around it. For SVG, emit one path for all dark modules instead of thousands of rects, and inline the logo image so the file is self-contained. Done when: a 30mm 300 DPI export comes out at exactly the computed pixel size with crisp module edges, the quiet zone survives in both formats, and the SVG opens clean in Illustrator.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build your own QR Tiger?
A basic version — styled codes, editable redirects, daily scan counts — takes about 90 min. Roughly 4 hours gets you a solid v1 with svg export, bulk creation, utm tagging, expiry dates. Matching everything QR Tiger really does (accounts, campaigns, landing pages, gps analytics, api) is closer to 1 month+, which is exactly why you should scope down instead.
How much does QR Tiger cost if I keep subscribing?
QR Tiger runs $15–$49 per month on public paid plans, which is $180–$588 per year. A focused self-built replacement costs your build time plus close-to-zero hosting.
What stack should I use to build a QR Tiger alternative?
The build prompt on this page ships in four flavors: the AHA stack (Astro, HTMX, Alpine.js), Next.js, Laravel, and Ruby on Rails. The capability context for this product is Astro, Workers, D1. Pick the stack you already know — the scope matters more than the framework.
What features does a minimal QR Tiger replacement need?
A useful v1 needs: QR codes with custom foreground, background, and a centered logo; short redirect URLs so destinations stay editable after printing; error-correction and contrast checks that keep styled codes scannable; PNG and SVG downloads at print-ready sizes; daily scan counts per code with 7- and 30-day totals. Everything else is scope creep until you personally miss it.
What should I deliberately not build?
Do not build landing pages, GPS tracking, team workspaces, white-label domains, or a public API.
Does this build also replace Flowcode and Uniqode?
Yes. QR Tiger, Flowcode and Uniqode all solve the same core job — generate branded codes whose destinations stay editable and know when they get scanned. The scoped v1 on this page covers what most people use any of them for, so one focused build replaces whichever you currently pay for.