139 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
139 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
# Felt — The Operating System for Poker Venues
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## What This Is
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Felt is an all-in-one poker venue operating system built on a resilient edge-cloud architecture. An ARM64 SBC "Leaf Node" runs the venue autonomously with NVMe storage. Ultra-cheap wireless display nodes replace HDMI cables. Players interact via their phones (PWA). A cloud Core layer handles cross-venue leagues, player profiles, public scheduling, and remote access. Everything flows through a self-hosted Netbird WireGuard mesh — network agnostic, zero-config, encrypted end-to-end.
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The product targets poker venues of all sizes — from a 3-table Copenhagen bar to a 40-table casino floor — replacing fragmented tools (TDD, whiteboards, spreadsheets, Blind Valet, BravoPokerLive) with one integrated platform.
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## Core Value
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A venue can run a complete tournament offline on a €100 device with wireless displays and player mobile access — and it just works, on any network, with zero IT involvement.
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## Requirements
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### Validated
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(None yet — ship to validate)
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### Active
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**Phase 1 (Development Focus): Live Tournament Management**
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- [ ] Platform-level player identity (players belong to Felt, not venues — UUID profiles span all venues, tournament history/stats/league standings are portable, data travels with the player if a venue leaves Felt; this is the core network effect and must be in the data model from day one)
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- [ ] Virtual Leaf architecture (same Go codebase runs as physical Leaf on ARM64 SBC or as virtual Leaf instance on Core cloud infrastructure for free-tier venues; free tier gets full tournament engine requiring only internet)
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- [ ] Full tournament clock engine (countdown, blinds, antes, levels, breaks, chip-ups, pause/resume)
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- [ ] Financial engine (buy-ins, rebuys, add-ons, bounties, payouts, prize pool calculation, rake — all int64 cents, never float64)
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- [ ] Player management (database, registration, bust-out tracking, chip counts, action history)
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- [ ] Table & seating (configurable layouts, random seating, auto-balancing, table breaks, drag-and-drop moves)
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- [ ] Multi-tournament support (run multiple tournaments simultaneously)
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- [ ] League & season management (configurable point formulas, standings, archives)
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- [ ] Regional tournament organizer (free-tier feature — anyone can create cross-venue tournaments/leagues, automatic result aggregation across venues, unified leaderboards, finals management; this is the viral adoption mechanism that hooks venues from outside)
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- [ ] Wireless display system (node registry, view assignment, tournament clock/rankings/seating/schedule views)
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- [ ] Digital signage (info screens, event promos, drink specials, sponsor ads, playlists, auto-scheduling)
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- [ ] WYSIWYG content editor with AI assist (template gallery, AI-generated promo cards/imagery, venue branding)
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- [ ] Player mobile PWA (QR code access, live clock, blinds, rankings, personal stats, league standings)
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- [ ] Player access via Netbird reverse proxy (public HTTPS → WireGuard → Leaf, same URL from anywhere)
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- [ ] Custom domain support (venues point CNAME to felt subdomain, Netbird handles TLS termination and routing automatically, felt subdomain as fallback — zero IT complexity for professional venue presence)
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- [ ] Events engine (triggers, conditions, actions — sounds, messages, view changes, webhooks)
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- [ ] Export (CSV, JSON, HTML)
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- [ ] NATS-based sync (Leaf → Core, queued offline, replayed on reconnect)
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- [ ] Operator UI (mobile-first, touch-native, dark-room ready, TDD-depth with modern UX)
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- [ ] Authentication (PIN login offline, OIDC via Authentik when online, operator roles)
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- [ ] TDD data import (blind structures, player database, tournament history, leagues, payout structures — this is the primary competitive weapon for adoption, not just a feature; zero data loss migration makes TDD obsolete on day one)
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**Phase 2 (Development Focus): Cash Game Operations**
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- [ ] Waitlist management (by game type and stakes, display integration, notifications)
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- [ ] Table management (open/close, game types, stakes, seat tracking, status board)
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- [ ] Game type registry (all poker variants, configurable stakes, betting structures)
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- [ ] Session tracking (player sessions, buy-in/cashout, duration, history)
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- [ ] Rake tracking (percentage/time/flat, per-table reporting, financial analytics)
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- [ ] Must-move tables (automated progression, main game priority)
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- [ ] Seat change requests (queue tracking, notification on availability)
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- [ ] Table transfers (cross-table moves within sessions)
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- [ ] Player alerts (waitlist position, seat available, preferred game opened)
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**Phase 3 (Development Focus): Complete Venue Platform**
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- [ ] Dealer management (scheduling, skill profiles, shift trading, clock-in/out, rotation) — dealer profiles are platform-level identity like players: work history, verified skills, and shift records belong to the dealer's Felt profile and are portable across venues
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- [ ] Player loyalty system (points engine, tier system, rewards catalog, automated promos, cross-venue loyalty for multi-venue operators)
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- [ ] Private venues & memberships (privacy modes, invite codes, member tiers, guest system)
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- [ ] Venue analytics & reporting (revenue dashboards, player analytics, operational analytics, multi-venue benchmarking)
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- [ ] Public venue presence (venue profile page, online event registration, schedule publishing, SEO-optimized)
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**Phase 4 (Development Focus): Native Apps & Platform Maturity**
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- [ ] Native player app (iOS + Android — push notifications, Wallet integration, social features)
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- [ ] Native venue management app (iOS + Android — push alerts, biometric auth, background sync)
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- [ ] Social features (private groups, activity feed, achievements, friend-based venue discovery)
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### Out of Scope
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- Online poker / real-money gambling — Felt is a management tool, not a gambling platform
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- Payment processing — tracks amounts, doesn't process transactions
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- Video streaming / live poker broadcast — not in the product vision
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- BYO hardware — Felt ships pre-configured, locked-down devices only
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- Third-party cloud dependencies (Cloudflare, AWS, etc.) — self-hosted everything
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## Context
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**Technical Environment:**
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- Leaf Node: ARM64 SBC (Orange Pi 5 Plus reference board, ~€100) with NVMe storage
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- Display Node: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (~€20) running Chromium kiosk
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- Core: Hetzner dedicated server running Proxmox VE with LXC containers
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- Backend: Go (shared codebase for Leaf and Core, different builds)
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- Frontend: SvelteKit (operator UI, player PWA, admin dashboard)
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- Database: LibSQL on Leaf (embedded SQLite), PostgreSQL on Core
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- Message Queue: NATS JetStream (embedded on Leaf, clustered on Core)
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- Identity: Authentik (self-hosted OIDC IdP)
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- Networking: Netbird (WireGuard mesh, reverse proxy, DNS, SSH, firewall policies)
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**Design Philosophy:** "TDD's brain, Linear's face." — Match The Tournament Director's depth and power while looking and feeling like a modern premium product. Dark-room ready, touch-native, glanceable, information-dense without clutter.
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**Color System:** Catppuccin Mocha-based dark theme (default), with Catppuccin Latte light alternative. Typography: Inter (UI) + JetBrains Mono (data/timers). Poker-specific accents (felt green, card white, bounty pink, prize yellow).
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**Competition:**
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- The Tournament Director (TDD): Feature-rich but Windows-only, 2002-era UI, no mobile/cloud/wireless
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- Blind Valet: Simple cloud timer, dead without internet
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- Poker Atlas: Discovery only, zero operational tooling
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- BravoPokerLive: US waitlist app, no tournaments, no displays
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**Business Model:**
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- Free tier: Full tournament engine on virtual Leaf in cloud (requires internet, ~€0.45/mo infra cost per venue)
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- Offline tier (€25/mo): Dedicated Leaf hardware + wireless display nodes + offline operation + custom domain + remote admin. Leaf hardware (~€120) free with 12-month annual plan
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- Pro tier (€100/mo = €25 offline + €75 features): Everything in Offline + cash games + dealer scheduling + loyalty + memberships + analytics + TDD import + priority support
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- Casino Starter (€249/mo): Independent casino, 1 poker room, 5-15 tables
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- Casino Pro (€499/mo per property): Small chain, 2-5 properties, 15-40 tables each
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- Casino Enterprise (€999+/mo custom): Large operators, 5+ properties, 40+ tables
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- Display nodes: Sold at cost + shipping (~€30 each), no recurring fee — stateless render devices
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- Hardware: No BYO. Felt hardware only — pre-configured, encrypted, secure boot
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**User's Development Phases vs. GSD Planning Phases:**
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The user's spec describes 4 product development phases (Tournament → Cash Games → Full Venue → Native Apps). These are the user's product focus areas, not to be confused with GSD's planning phases which break down the work within those development phases.
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## Constraints
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- **Hardware:** Must run on ARM64 SBC with 4GB+ RAM, NVMe storage. Display nodes on Pi Zero 2 W (512MB RAM)
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- **Offline-first:** Entire tournament operation must work without internet. Cloud is never a dependency during operation
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- **Network agnostic:** Must work on any internet connection via Netbird WireGuard mesh. No firewall config, no port forwarding
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- **Self-hosted:** No third-party MITM. Self-hosted Netbird, Authentik, Core. Full stack ownership
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- **Security:** LUKS encryption at rest, WireGuard in transit, RLS multi-tenancy, GDPR compliance, audit trail on all state changes
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- **Performance:** State changes propagate to all clients within 100ms via WebSocket. Display views readable from 10+ feet
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- **Solo developer initially:** Architecture must be manageable for a single developer to build and maintain
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## Key Decisions
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| Decision | Rationale | Outcome |
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| Go for backend (Leaf + Core) | Single binary, ARM cross-compile, goroutine concurrency, excellent stdlib | — Pending |
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| SvelteKit for all frontends | Shared codebase, PWA support, SSR for public pages, SPA for operator | — Pending |
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| LibSQL over plain SQLite on Leaf | SQLite-compatible with replication support, better concurrent writes | — Pending |
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| NATS JetStream for sync | Runs on Pi (~10MB RAM), persistent queuing, survives offline, ordered replay | — Pending |
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| Netbird as infrastructure backbone | WireGuard mesh + reverse proxy + DNS + SSH + firewall in one self-hosted platform | — Pending |
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| Authentik as IdP | Self-hosted, OIDC for Netbird + Felt, lightweight (~200MB RAM), Apache 2.0 | — Pending |
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| Catppuccin Mocha color system | Dark-room optimized, established palette, systematic accent colors | — Pending |
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| Platform-level player & dealer identity | Players AND dealers belong to Felt, not venues — portable profiles, cross-venue history, network effects, platform lock-in | — Pending |
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| Virtual Leaf for free tier | Same codebase runs on physical SBC or as cloud instance — enables free tier without hardware | — Pending |
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| No BYO hardware | Security, reliability, support consistency, controlled full chain | — Pending |
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| Free tier with virtual Leaf | Full tournament engine for free, costs ~€0.45/mo per venue, drives adoption flywheel | — Pending |
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| Proxmox VE for Core hosting | LXC + KVM, web management, PBS backup integration, scales by adding nodes | — Pending |
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---
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*Last updated: 2026-02-28 after initialization + gap review (platform identity, virtual Leaf, regional organizer, custom domains, business model details, dealer portability)*
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