Job Application Tracker - Longlist

Get the boring parts right first, because everything after this assumes they work.

1. Done

   Scaffold Next.js and TypeScript

   App Router, strict TypeScript, Tailwind. The starting point every later decision had to fit inside.

2. Done

   Wire up Supabase

   Postgres, client and server helpers, and environment variables split so the service key never reaches the browser.

3. Done

   Model an application

   Company, role, link, notes, the date applied and the current stage. Getting this shape right early meant the UI never had to work around it.

4. Done

   Auth and row-level security

   Supabase auth with RLS policies, so a query can only ever return the signed-in user's own applications rather than trusting the client to filter.

One role, end to end, before worrying about thirty of them.

1. Done

   The six-stage model

   Interested, Applied, Online Assessment, Interview, Offer, Rejected. Six was the smallest set that still described a real search honestly.

2. Done

   Add, edit and delete roles

   A form that takes seconds, because a tracker you resent updating stops being accurate within a week.

3. Done

   Move a role between stages

   The single most-used action in the app, so it had to be one click from the table rather than buried in an edit form.

The actual problem was never storing applications. It was seeing the shape of thirty of them at once.

1. Done

   Donut chart of the pipeline

   Where everything sits, in one glance. Answers “am I actually getting interviews or just applying a lot?” without reading a single row.

2. Done

   Stage counters that update instantly

   A status change updates the chart and the counts immediately, so the dashboard never disagrees with the table you just edited.

3. Done

   Search, filter and sort the table

   Find a company by name, filter to one stage, sort by date applied. The three things you reach for when something has gone quiet.

4. Done

   Empty and loading states

   A tracker is at its emptiest on day one, which is exactly when a blank screen is most likely to lose you.

Cheap, quick, and the difference between a repo and something people can actually use.

1. Done

   Make it work on a phone

   Applications get logged the moment you send them, which is rarely at a desk. The table collapses to cards below the tablet breakpoint.

2. Done

   Deploy to Vercel

   Preview deployments per branch, environment variables split between preview and production, and a live demo anyone can click.

3. Done

   Write up how it was built

   A post on building it with agentic engineering — Claude Code and Claude Design — since the process was as much the point as the product.