# How to Vibe Code Your Own Aurelius (and Stop Paying for It) > The more powerful research repository and insights platform - Site: https://aureliuslab.com - Category: UX Research & Analytics - Verdict: **Solid side project** (65/100 vibecodeable) - Estimated effort: 3-4 weeks of focused evening work ## Verdict Build a personal subset for your own user research repo, but keep paying if you need robust multi-language transcription and Jira/Zoom enterprise integrations. Aurelius is a well-crafted vertical SaaS platform. While cloning the core CRUD workspace, tagging engine, Kanban analysis board, and LLM summary generator is straightforward with AI tooling, building a bulletproof audio transcription pipeline for 180+ languages and deep enterprise integrations (Zoom/Jira) will consume dozens of unglamorous hours. If you are a solo researcher trying to cut a $49/mo habit for your own notes, building a personal Next.js clone is a rewarding weekend project. If you need it for a multi-person team with existing workflows, paying the subscription is far more rational. ### What you can't replicate - Instant out-of-the-box native Zoom recording imports and bi-directional Jira issue sync - Enterprise security reviews, penetration testing reports, and SAML 2.0 SSO compliance - Battle-tested multi-language speech-to-text pipeline supporting 180+ dialects ## What it does A user research repository and qualitative data analysis platform for product, design, and user research teams to store, tag, synthesize, and share customer insights. ### Core features - Project workspace management for qualitative data - Rich note-taking and multi-format document uploads - Flexible tagging system with real-time typeahead - Analysis board (Kanban / affinity diagramming) - AI Assist for automated paragraph summaries and key themes - Key insights and recommendation linkage - Automatic research report builder and exporter - Universal search and cross-project tag analysis ## The business ### Pricing - Professional: $49/mo — For solo & agency researchers - Premium: $199/mo — For in-house UX & product teams - Enterprise: Custom — For large in-house teams Founded 2017. Team size: Lean / micro-team. ## The hard parts - Multi-language speech-to-text transcription pipeline for 180+ languages at scale - Asynchronous background file ingestion and chunked document parsing (Magic Upload) - Global cross-project vector and keyword search index with tenant isolation - Real-time drag-and-drop affinity diagram synchronization ## How to vibe code Aurelius ### Prerequisites - Node.js (free): Runtime environment for Next.js development - GitHub (free): Source control and deployment pipeline integration ### Recommended AI tools - Claude Code: Terminal agent best suited for scaffolding complex multi-page Next.js repositories and wiring API routes end-to-end - Cursor: AI-native code editor ideal for iterating on React components, Kanban boards, and markdown editors ### Stack - Frontend: Next.js (React) with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui - Backend: Next.js App Router Server Actions and API Routes - Database: Turso (SQLite at the edge for relational workspace data) - Auth: better-auth (self-hosted TypeScript auth with email and session management) - Payments: None (personal use clone) - Other: OpenAI API (for Whisper transcription and GPT-powered AI Assist summaries), UploadThing (for handling document and media file uploads) ### Hosting - Vercel (Zero-config hosting for Next.js frontend and serverless API endpoints): $0/mo (Hobby tier) - Turso (Serverless SQLite database for projects, notes, tags, and insights): $0/mo (Free tier) ### Build guide 1. **Scaffold Next.js App & Database Schema** — Initialize a Next.js 16 project with Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, Turso database connection via Drizzle ORM, and better-auth setup. ``` Create a new Next.js 16 project using the App Router, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. Initialize Drizzle ORM configured for Turso (SQLite). Create database schemas for users, projects, notes, tags, note_tags, key_insights, insight_notes, and recommendations. Implement better-auth for secure email/password authentication. Ensure proper foreign key constraints, cascading deletes, and indexes for project-scoped searches. Create initial database migration scripts and test connection reliability. ``` 2. **Project Workspace & Document Management** — Build the core dashboard views to create projects, list research notes, and upload multi-format documents using UploadThing. ``` Build the main dashboard and project workspace views in Next.js. Implement CRUD operations for Projects. Inside a project, create a rich-text Note-taking interface supporting bulk creation (pressing enter creates a new note line). Integrate UploadThing to support file uploads (PDFs, images, audio/video) and bind uploaded documents directly to project records with a dedicated Documents tab. ``` 3. **Tagging System & Keyword Analysis** — Implement a flexible tag creation and bulk-tagging engine with automatic keyword frequency analysis. ``` Build a comprehensive tagging system for notes and key insights. Allow users to create tags with custom names and sentiment badges (positive/neutral/negative emojis). Implement a multi-select bulk tagging interface for notes. Create a backend utility that automatically parses uploaded note text, extracts word frequency distributions (excluding stopwords), and displays an automatic Keyword Analysis summary header at the top of each project. ``` 4. **Analysis Board (Kanban Affinity Mapping)** — Develop a drag-and-drop Kanban style affinity diagram board to group notes and formulate themes. ``` Build an Analysis Board view for projects using a drag-and-drop library (e.g., @hello-pangea/dnd or standard HTML5 drag-and-drop). Allow users to create thematic columns (affinity groups) and drag notes and insights across columns and back to an unassigned pool. Persist column configurations and card order to the Turso database with optimistic UI updates. ``` 5. **AI Assist & Whisper Transcription Pipeline** — Integrate OpenAI API for automatic note summarization and audio/video transcription into text notes. ``` Implement an 'AI Assist' feature using the OpenAI API. Add server actions that aggregate selected project notes and generate concise paragraph summaries and key extracted themes. Additionally, create an audio/video transcription pipeline: when a user uploads an audio/video file, send it to the OpenAI Whisper API, store the resulting text transcript as a new note in the project, and notify the user upon completion. ``` 6. **Key Insights, Recommendations & Report Builder** — Build key insight creation tying notes together, recommendation mapping, and an automatic report generator. ``` Build the Key Insights and Recommendations modules. Allow users to highlight notes, group them into a Key Insight with a priority and type, and derive action-oriented Recommendations linked to supporting insights. Finally, build an Automatic Report Builder page that aggregates project insights and recommendations into a clean, editable layout with export-to-PDF and shareable read-only live link capabilities. ``` ### Cost vs paying **Starting costs (one-time):** - AI Coding Assistant subscription (Cursor/Claude Pro): $20 - Total: ~$20 one-time **Ongoing costs (monthly):** - Turso Database & Vercel Hosting: $0 - OpenAI API usage (Whisper & GPT Assist): ~$5-10/mo - Total: ~$8/mo - Paying for the SaaS instead: $49/mo (Professional plan) - Build time: 40-50 hours - AI tool credits: $20 (Claude/Cursor Pro) - Break-even: 1 month of Pro subscription ## Sources - [Aurelius Homepage](https://aureliuslab.com) - [Aurelius Pricing Page](https://aureliuslab.com/pricing) - [Aurelius Features Page](https://aureliuslab.com/features) - [Aurelius Security Policy](https://aureliuslab.com/security)