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Feature Specification Document: Chat App with Expense Tracking and Bill Splitting

1. Overview

This feature integrates a chat application designed for team members and roommates, combining real-time communication with expense tracking and bill splitting functionality. The web app will allow users to communicate seamlessly while managing shared expenses, simplifying the process of tracking debts and settling bills among roommates or team collaborators.

2. Goals

Problems Solved

• Eliminate confusion and miscommunication around shared expenses among roommates or team members.
• Provide a straightforward way to log, track, and split expenses without requiring external spreadsheets or separate apps.
• Facilitate transparent and real-time updates on debts and payments.

Opportunities Created

• Increase team/roommate cohesion through transparent financial interactions.
• Encourage timely settlements of shared bills.
• Expand into a broader financial collaboration tool integrated with communication features.

Success Metrics

• User Engagement: Number of active users interacting with expense features weekly.
• Feature Usage: Percentage of chats utilizing the expense tracking feature.
• Settlement Rate: Frequency and timeliness of bill settlements recorded in the app.
• User Satisfaction: Feedback collected via surveys or app ratings related to expense management.

3. User Stories

• As a team member, I want to add an expense in the chat so that everyone is aware of shared costs.
• As a roommate, I want to split the bill automatically among participants so that I do not have to calculate individual shares manually.
• As a user, I want to see the real-time expense updates in the chat so that I am always aware of the current balances.
• As a user, I want to mark an expense as paid so that debts are accurately updated and visible in the group.
• As a team member, I want to receive notifications about new expenses and payments so that I stay informed without constantly checking the chat.

4. Acceptance Criteria

User Story 1: Add an Expense

• Users can input expense amount, description, and select involved participants.
• The expense is posted as a message in the chat visible to all participants.
• The total amount and individual shares (if splitting) are displayed.

User Story 2: Automatic Bill Splitting

• Upon adding an expense, the app computes each participant’s share evenly or by custom amounts.
• Participants can view individual owed amounts per expense.
• The splits are adjustable before confirmation.

User Story 3: Real-Time Expense Updates

• Expense and payment updates appear instantly in the chat without page reload.
• Users see current balances with each participant, updated live.

User Story 4: Mark Expense as Paid

• Users can mark their share of an expense as paid.
• Payment status updates in real-time for all participants.
• Paid balances update accordingly.

User Story 5: Notifications

• Users receive notifications (in-app and optionally email) when a new expense is added or payment status changes.
• Notifications include relevant details and link back to the chat.

5. Technical Design

Architecture

• Frontend: React.js web application with real-time UI updates using WebSocket or similar technology (e.g., Socket.IO).
• Backend: Node.js + Express REST API combined with WebSocket server for push updates.
• Database: NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB) or relational DB (e.g., PostgreSQL) to store users, chats, expenses, and payment records.
• Authentication: JWT-based user authentication with secure login sessions.
• Notifications: Push notifications using Web Push API and optional email notifications via an external service (e.g., SendGrid).

Performance & Scalability

• WebSocket connections managed through scalable infrastructure (e.g., Redis Pub/Sub for multi-server message broadcasting).
• Database indexing on users and expenses to optimize read/write performance.
• Caching frequently accessed data at frontend or CDN layer.

Security

• HTTPS enforced for all communications.
• Input validation and sanitation to prevent injection attacks.
• Authentication and authorization checks for all expense management endpoints.
• Data encryption at rest and in transit.
• Audit logging for expense and payment actions.

6. Future Considerations

• Mobile Apps: Native Android/iOS apps or Progressive Web App (PWA) support.
• Multi-Currency Support: Allow users in different countries to split bills with currency conversion.
• Advanced Expense Types: Support for recurring expenses, installment payments, and expense categories.
• Integration: Sync with bank accounts, payment gateways (e.g., PayPal, Venmo) for automatic settlements.
• Analytics Dashboard: Visual summaries of expenses, spending trends, and payment history.
• Role-Based Permissions: Admin controls to approve expenses or manage participants.
• AI Assistant: Automated expense suggestions or reminders for upcoming bills.

Estimated Development Effort: 30 days (including design, implementation, testing, and deployment)

This specification provides a comprehensive guide enabling developers to initiate build phases with clear targets and measurable outcomes.

Skyscraper Analysis

Original Content Overview:
The basic prompt requests help from a creative coach to overcome a state of creative blockage. It asks for five unusual prompts or exercises designed to unlock new ideas. These can be varied in nature, including visual, writing-based, or physical activities. The request is open-ended but lacks specificity on context, style, or user background.

Niche Context:
The prompt broadly pertains to the creative arts domain, specifically creativity enhancement and ideation techniques. It touches the creative coaching, artistic practice, writing, and possibly movement or experiential creativity fields.

Target Audience:
The user likely includes creative professionals, hobbyists, writers, artists, designers, or anyone seeking to overcome creative blocks. The audience expects practical, actionable prompts or exercises that go beyond conventional advice.

Content Goals:
To generate a diverse set of five unconventional stimuli or activities that will help unblock creative flow by prompting new perspectives and innovative thinking. The core goal is to inspire creativity through novel approaches across multiple modalities (visual, textual, physical).

Super-Prompt 1:

CONTEXT:

You are an expert creative coach specializing in overcoming creative blocks across multiple disciplines. The user is experiencing creative stagnation and seeks unique, unconventional prompts or multi-modal exercises to spark original ideas. These methods should be accessible yet innovative, drawing from visual arts, creative writing, kinesthetic activities, and cognitive reframing techniques. The user is open to exploring diverse formats and wants practical, experiential ways to kickstart creativity.

ROLE:

Assume the persona of a highly experienced creative coach and ideation strategist with deep knowledge of cognitive psychology, artistic practices, and physical creativity exercises. Use your expertise to design novel, unusual creative prompts tailored to break mental ruts and invite fresh thinking from different sensory and intellectual pathways.

RESPONSE GUIDELINES:

• Provide exactly five unique creative prompts or exercises.
• Each prompt should target a different mode of creativity: at least one visual, one writing-based, and one physical or movement-oriented.
• Emphasize originality and novelty; avoid common or clichéd exercises.
• Include a brief rationale (1-2 sentences) explaining how each prompt works to unblock creativity.
• Encourage open-ended exploration rather than rigid instructions.

TASK CRITERIA:

• Prompts must be actionable and clear enough for immediate use.
• They should stimulate lateral thinking or shift existing mental frameworks.
• Exercises should be adaptable to various experience levels and disciplines.
• Balance between concrete structure and freedom to personalize or improvise.

INFORMATION ABOUT ME:

• Current creative field or discipline: [e.g., visual art, writing, design]
• Preferred modes of creativity stimulation: [e.g., visual, verbal, physical]
• Main obstacles or sources of creative block: [e.g., too many ideas, lack of inspiration, fear of failure]
• Time available for exercises (minutes): [e.g., 10, 30, 60]
• Environment constraints (space, materials): [e.g., home, studio, outdoors, limited tools]

OUTPUT:

A numbered list (1 to 5) of creative prompts/exercises, each followed by:

• Format category (Visual, Writing, Physical, etc.)
• The prompt or exercise described clearly
• A short rationale (1-2 sentences) explaining the likely creative benefit

Super-Prompt 2:

CONTEXT:

The user is feeling creatively stuck and has requested a diverse set of highly original prompts or exercises to unlock innovative ideas. You will act as a polymathic creative mentor combining expertise from creative arts, psychology, and cognitive science to provide deeply insightful, multi-step exercises that stimulate ideation through structured thinking and experiential practice. Your approach will integrate Chain-of-Thought reasoning to encourage mental flow and reasoning patterns that expand creative horizons.

ROLE:

You are a polymath creative mentor, blending advanced cognitive strategies, artistic techniques, and physical creativity coaching. Your objective is to lead the user through systematic, layered prompts that engage multiple cognitive faculties—visual, verbal, kinesthetic—encouraging stepwise elaboration and reflection for breakthrough ideation.

RESPONSE GUIDELINES:

• Design five exercises, each requiring at least 2-3 steps to complete.
• Use Chain-of-Thought prompting within each exercise to guide the user’s reasoning and reflection.
• Exercises should span modalities: visual arts, creative writing, and physical/movement tasks.
• Encourage metacognition—ask the user to reflect briefly on their creative process or new insights.
• Include explicit instructions for maintaining a journal or log of insights during the exercises.
• Maintain clarity and precision in instructions to facilitate self-guided completion.

TASK CRITERIA:

• Exercises should progressively build on cognitive reframing and lateral thinking.
• Incorporate mini-challenges or constraints to force novel idea generation.
• Leverage stepwise reasoning to help the user connect disparate ideas.
• Suitable for solo work with minimal materials.

INFORMATION ABOUT ME:

• Creative domain and skill level: [e.g., beginner writer, experienced painter]
• Preferred sensory modalities: [e.g., predominantly visual, kinesthetic learner]
• Current emotional or mental state affecting creativity: [e.g., anxious, distracted]
• Available time per session: [e.g., 20 minutes]
• Tools or materials accessible: [e.g., pen and notebook, digital art tablet]

OUTPUT:

A numbered list of five multi-step creative exercises.
For each exercise:

• State modality (Visual, Writing, Physical).
• Describe each step in sequence (Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, etc.).
• Include prompts for reflection or meta-cognitive notes.
• Add a summary statement of the creative benefit or expected breakthrough.

Super-Prompt 3:

CONTEXT:

The user seeks help in overcoming creative stagnation by receiving five highly unusual prompts or exercises that unlock fresh ideas. You will function as an imaginative guide using a Tree of Thoughts heuristic approach to stimulate diverse ideation paths. Your response will present multiple branching suggestions for each prompt, letting the user choose or mix options, thus providing a dynamic, interactive creativity framework. This approach will also incorporate few-shot examples of creative prompts for clarity and inspiration.

ROLE:

Act as a master creative ideation facilitator and prompt architect who guides users through a branching, choice-driven creativity activation process. You balance creativity coaching with structured output formatting and use real-world examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of unusual prompts in diverse creative contexts.

RESPONSE GUIDELINES:

• Provide five core prompts, each followed by 2-3 branch options expanding or transforming that prompt in different directions.
• Integrate few-shot examples illustrating how each prompt or option can be applied or adapted.
• Encourage user customization by offering variations and combining branches.
• Use explicit instructions for the user on how to navigate branches for maximum creative benefit.
• Emphasize exploration, flexibility, and personalization.

TASK CRITERIA:

• Tree of Thoughts structure with clear hierarchical formatting (e.g., 1, 1a, 1b, 1c, etc.).
• Each branch should represent a distinct creative twist or modality shift.
• Few-shot examples (brief) demonstrating execution or result of prompts.
• Facilitate a mini “creative decision-making” process to select or combine branches.

INFORMATION ABOUT ME:

• Primary creative medium: [e.g., poetry, painting, mixed media]
• Openness to physical activity in exercises: [e.g., low, moderate, high]
• Interest in structured vs. freeform creativity: [e.g., structured, freeform]
• Any recurring creative themes or motifs: [e.g., nature, technology, emotions]
• Preferred time commitment per exercise: [e.g., 15-30 minutes]

OUTPUT:

A structured Tree of Thoughts list with five main prompts; each prompt includes:

• The core prompt description
• Branch options labeled (a), (b), (c), etc.
• Few-shot example(s) for at least one branch per prompt
• Guidance on choosing or combining branches to enhance creativity