Credex AI Spend Audit

A free AI spend audit tool that helps founders and engineering managers identify waste across AI tooling subscriptions. Users input their plans and spend, get a savings breakdown, and can capture a shareable report with an optional Credex consultation prompt for large savings.

Live URL: TODO (deploy to Vercel)

Screenshots / Demo

• Screenshot 1: TODO
• Screenshot 2: TODO
• Screenshot 3: TODO
• (Optional) 30-second demo video: TODO

Quick Start

Install

npm install

Configure environment

Create a .env file with:

NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:3000"
GEMINI_API_KEY="your_gemini_api_key"
RESEND_API_KEY="your_resend_api_key"

Note: DATABASE_URL is no longer required. This app is fully stateless — no database setup needed.

Run locally

npm run dev

Tests

npx vitest run

How it Works

1. User fills out the form with their AI tools, plans, seats, and monthly spend.
2. POST /api/audit runs the deterministic audit engine and returns a result with a stateless Base64 ID.
3. The UI renders the audit and calls POST /api/summary for the AI-generated 100-word summary (Gemini 1.5 Flash).
4. The "Share audit" button generates a URL like /audit/<base64_id> — the ID itself encodes all audit data, so the link works permanently without a database.
5. Optionally, the user enters their email and POST /api/leads captures the lead and sends a confirmation via Resend.

Key Decisions (Trade-offs)

1. Stateless Base64 over Prisma/SQLite — eliminates DB cold-starts on Vercel; shareable URLs never expire.
2. Deterministic audit logic (not LLM-based) — keeps recommendations defensible and finance-friendly.
3. Email capture after results — aligns with the "value-first" requirement and reduces drop-off.
4. AI summary as a separate endpoint — keeps the core audit instant and resilient to LLM failures.
5. Gemini 1.5 Flash over Pro — 3x faster with equivalent quality for 100-word summaries.

Deploy

Vercel (Recommended)

1. Push this repo to GitHub.
2. Go to https://vercel.com/new and import the repo.
3. Add environment variables:
   • NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL = your deployed URL (e.g. https://your-app.vercel.app)
   • GEMINI_API_KEY = your Gemini API key
   • RESEND_API_KEY = your Resend API key (optional — lead capture still works without it)
4. Deploy. No database setup required.

Repository Files

This repo includes the required Credex deliverables at the root:

• ARCHITECTURE.md — system diagram and data flow
• DEVLOG.md — daily work log
• REFLECTION.md — technical reflection and self-assessment
• PROMPTS.md — AI prompt used for summaries
• PRICING_DATA.md — pricing sources and verification dates
• ECONOMICS.md — unit economics and $1M ARR math
• GTM.md — go-to-market strategy
• METRICS.md — north star metric and instrumentation plan
• USER_INTERVIEWS.md — user interview insights
• TESTS.md — test coverage and manual QA checklist