# How to Vibe Code Your Own Loom (and Stop Paying for It)

> One video is worth a thousand words

- Site: https://loom.com
- Category: Productivity & Video
- Verdict: **Solid side project** (68/100 vibecodeable)
- Estimated effort: 2-4 weeks part-time

## Verdict

Build a personal subset for your own video library using Next.js and Mux, but pay for Loom if you rely on its team distribution loop.

Replicating Loom's client-side recording and playback loop as a solo developer is achievable using modern web browser capture APIs, Mux for video streaming, and OpenAI for transcripts. However, building the entire native cross-platform recording suite, robust enterprise permissions, and deep Atlassian ecosystem integrations requires months of unglamorous engineering. A personal clone centered around web-based recording and AI summaries is a rewarding side project, but maintaining video delivery at scale makes paying for the real product rational.

### What you can't replicate

- The massive viral loop of millions of external users viewing shared link domains
- Enterprise compliance frameworks, SAML SSO, and Atlassian Guard security tiers
- Native system-level audio capture and background noise suppression across macOS and Windows

## What it does

Asynchronous video messaging and screen recording platform for async workplace communication.

### Core features

- Screen and webcam recording via browser API or desktop capture
- Video upload, transcoding, and HLS streaming playback
- Automatic speech-to-text transcription and subtitle generation
- AI-powered video summarization, chapter generation, and task extraction
- Time-stamped comments and emoji reactions
- Workspace organization and library management

## The business

### Pricing

- Starter: Free — Up to 50 creator lite members, 25 videos per person, 5-minute recording limit.
- Business: $18/mo — Unlimited videos, unlimited recording length, high-definition up to 4K.
- Business + AI: $24/mo — Includes AI workflows, auto-summaries, chapters, and task extraction.
- Enterprise: Custom — Advanced security, SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, and SLA guarantees.

### Funding

$214M raised.
- Seed
- Series A
- Series B
- Series C
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Coatue, 1517 Fund

Founded 2015.
Team size: 150-300.

## The hard parts

- Cross-platform desktop screen capture and real-time hardware encoding without high CPU spikes
- Scalable cloud video storage, transcoding pipelines, and adaptive bitrate HLS streaming infrastructure
- Asynchronous background processing for long video uploads and Whisper transcription jobs

## How to vibe code Loom

### Prerequisites

- Node.js (free): Runtime environment for building and running the full-stack web application.
- GitHub (free): Source code repository and CI/CD deployment pipelines.

### Recommended AI tools

- Claude Code: Autonomous terminal agent capable of scaffolding the Next.js app, setting up database schemas, and writing API routes.
- Cursor: AI-native code editor for iterative frontend UI work, component styling, and debugging React media streams.

### Stack

- Frontend: Next.js
- Backend: Next.js Server Actions
- Database: Turso
- Auth: better-auth
- Payments: none
- Other: Tailwind CSS, Mux, OpenAI API

### Hosting

- Vercel (Hosting the Next.js web application and handling serverless API routes.): $0-20/mo
- Cloudflare (Hosting Turso edge SQLite database and DNS management.): $0/mo

### Build guide

1. **Project Scaffolding and Database Schema** — Initialize a Next.js project with Tailwind CSS, configure Turso database connectivity, and implement better-auth for user authentication.

```
Initialize a new Next.js project using TypeScript and Tailwind CSS. Configure better-auth with email/password authentication backed by a Turso SQLite database using the libSQL client. Create database migration schemas for users, workspaces, videos (storing video ID, title, transcript, summary, duration, and author ID), comments, and reactions. Set up proper environment variable validation and clean project directory structures.
```

2. **Screen & Camera Recording Interface** — Build the web-based screen and webcam recording component using browser MediaRecorder APIs.

```
Build a React recording component that captures screen video via getDisplayMedia and webcam/audio via getUserMedia. Allow users to overlay a floating draggable webcam bubble onto the screen recording canvas. Implement start, pause, resume, and stop controls. Record the stream into webm chunks, assemble them into a Blob upon completion, and display a local video preview player with download options.
```

3. **Video Upload and Mux Streaming Pipeline** — Integrate Mux video upload and streaming services to handle processed video hosting and playback.

```
Integrate Mux video upload API into the Next.js backend. Create a server action to generate direct upload URLs from Mux so the frontend can securely upload recorded video blobs directly to Mux storage. Save the resulting Mux asset ID and playback ID in the Turso database linked to the user's video record. Implement a responsive video player component using Mux Player to render uploaded recordings smoothly.
```

4. **AI Transcription and Summary Pipeline** — Implement automated audio extraction, OpenAI Whisper transcription, and GPT summary generation.

```
Create a background job or server action triggered after a video upload finishes. Download the audio track or send the video asset to the OpenAI Whisper API to generate a precise timestamped transcript. Pass the resulting transcript text to the OpenAI GPT-4o API using structured outputs to automatically generate an engaging title, a concise summary, chapter breakdowns with timestamps, and an extracted list of action items/tasks. Store these results in the video record.
```

5. **Video Watch Page and Interactive Elements** — Build the public video watch page featuring synchronized transcripts, comments, and emoji reactions.

```
Build a video watch page route (/watch/[id]) with a split layout: the Mux video player and AI summary/chapters on the left, and a scrollable synchronized transcript on the right clicking which seeks the video. Implement a comment thread component with timestamp anchors linked to the video playback time, and an emoji reaction bar that saves interactions to Turso with real-time state updates.
```

6. **Workspace Library and Sharing Dashboard** — Create the user dashboard for organizing, archiving, and sharing video libraries.

```
Build a user dashboard workspace interface displaying personal and shared video libraries in grid and list views. Include search and filtering by title, folder organization, and privacy controls (public link vs password-protected). Implement a share modal that copies the public watch link and provides embed code snippets for external tools.
```

### Cost vs paying

**Starting costs (one-time):**

- AI Coding Assistant Subscriptions: $20
- Custom domain (optional): $12/yr
- Total: ~$32 one-time

**Ongoing costs (monthly):**

- Vercel Hobby/Pro Hosting: $0-20/mo
- Mux Video Encoding & Streaming: ~$5-10/mo
- OpenAI API (Whisper + GPT-4o): ~$5/mo
- Total: ~$15-35/mo

- Paying for the SaaS instead: $18 - $24 per user / month
- Build time: 45-60 hours
- AI tool credits: $20 one-time (Claude/Cursor Pro)
- Break-even: 1 month

## Sources

- [Loom Official Website](https://loom.com)
- [Business Wire - Atlassian to Acquire Loom](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231012173111/en/Atlassian-to-Acquire-Loom-to-Supercharge-Team-Collaboration)
- [Wikipedia - Loom, Inc. History & Profile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loom_(company))