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Web App vs AI Agent vs Data Dashboard - AI Foundations Day 14

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Adapting Your Spec to Your Track

5:02 with Travis Alstrand

What changes for each track: screens and navigation for web apps, decision rules and guardrails for agents, key metrics and data sources for dashboards. Demonstrated live on a real spec inside a Claude project, where the core idea stays the same and only the structure shifts.

Vocabulary

  • API (Application Programming Interface) — How two pieces of software talk to each other. Like a waiter: your app sends a request, the API carries it to the other system and brings back the result.
  • Back end — Everything happening behind the scenes — the logic, rules, and processing. The kitchen. Wrong results or mis-handled data are back-end issues.
  • CSV (Comma-Separated Values) — A plain-text spreadsheet format — each line a row, commas between columns. The most common way to move data between tools.
  • Front end — Everything a user sees and touches — buttons, screens, layouts, forms. The storefront. Broken layouts and dead buttons are front-end issues.
  • Guardrails — Hard boundaries an agent must never cross — the things it's forbidden to do, no matter what it decides.
  • Spec (specification) — A document describing your app clearly enough that a person or an AI builder tool can build it without asking many questions. A blueprint, not a napkin sketch.
  • User flow — The step-by-step path a person takes through your app. Every spec needs three: onboarding, the core workflow, and what happens when something goes wrong.

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    Related Discussions

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    because each track needs different details emphasized, 0:00
    and in some cases entirely new sections added. 0:02
    If you chose the web app track, your spec is probably already pretty close. 0:07
    At this point, the main thing you want to do is review it 0:11
    and make sure the important pieces are fully fleshed out. 0:14
    Start with your user flows. 0:18
    Make sure all three are complete and detailed, especially the onboarding flow, 0:19
    the core workflow, and error recovery. 0:25
    You want these written clearly enough that a builder tool doesn't have to guess what 0:28

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