A private, invite-only web app for a closed friend group to track each other's social media handles — so if anyone's account gets banned or deleted, they add their new handle, a friend vouches for it, and the whole group gets an email. The network never fractures.
Not automated ban detection: members self-report. The app's job is fast, trustworthy re-connection.
- Invite-only — no public signup; members create single-use invite links
(or use
flask create-invitefrom the terminal to bootstrap the first member). - Auth & security — Argon2 password hashing, email verification before the account activates, optional TOTP 2FA (QR-code setup, opt-in), and self-serve password reset via a signed email link (1-hour expiry, strictly single-use, enumeration-safe messaging, logged to the audit trail). The app stores only email, password hash, and platform+username pairs — never any credentials for external platforms.
- Handles — add/edit/remove, each tagged with a custom "charm" icon (original bows/hearts/cute-skulls, not platform logos). Every change lands in an audit log (who, what, when).
- Peer vouching — a new handle stays pending until another member clicks "I recognize this account". The vouch unlocks the broadcast: an email to every subscribed member. Renaming a handle resets its verification.
- Platform directory — a page per platform (Instagram, TikTok, X, …) listing only the members who are actually on it.
- 120-day check-ins — an in-app "I'm still here 💗" prompt with reminder emails 14, 7, and 1 day before the deadline, and a heart-sparkle burst on confirm. Missing the window mutes incoming email (never deletes anything); checking in un-mutes instantly.
- Notifications — granular email preferences, one-click unsubscribe links
(signed token, no login,
List-Unsubscribeheaders), and an optional in-browser chime pack (three synthesized chimes, no audio files). - Per-member mutes — everyone is auto-subscribed to everyone's broadcasts by default, but any member can toggle off a specific person's new-handle emails from the directory. One-directional and silent (the muted member is never told, and nothing is written to the shared change history); it only suppresses that person's broadcast emails — vouching, visibility, and every other interaction are untouched. Entirely separate from the 120-day check-in mute. Scale note: the flat toggle list on the directory is right for a small group; past ~100 members, revisit with search-as-you-type or platform-based filtering rather than growing this list.
- Data rights — self-serve JSON export of everything stored about you, and self-serve hard delete (password + typed confirmation) that purges the account, handles, vouches, and audit entries immediately.
- Two moods — 🌸 Girly Pop mode (soft pastel pink) and 💀 Goth Babe mode (dark and punkier), with sparkle micro-animations throughout.
- Mobile-ready — responsive across all pages: nav collapses behind a hamburger on small screens, ≥44px touch targets on touch devices, wide tables scroll inside themselves, platform cards and lists reflow, and all interactions (vouch, check-in, mute toggles, theme switch, tooltips) work by tap. PWA/home-screen install deliberately deferred to a later pass.
- Profile deep links — a handle's @username links straight to the profile (new tab) on platforms with predictable URL patterns — Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, Twitch, Tumblr, Bluesky, Pinterest, Telegram, and Snapchat via its add-link format. Links are always derived from the stored username (never entered/stored as URLs). Discord and Signal have no public profile URL, so an ⓘ icon shows a tap/hover tooltip: add them manually using the handle.
- Admin role — admins can view/edit/hard-delete any member's account,
revoke or reissue invite links, and reverse a disputed vouch. Every admin
action is written to the change history tagged 🛡️ as an admin action, so
nothing is ever silent. There is deliberately no web UI path to admin
status — only
flask set-admin <email>or a direct DB edit — and regular members see no admin controls at all (admin URLs 404 for them). - Contact admin — an in-app form that emails both admins directly over the existing SMTP setup, so no contact info needs to be listed anywhere.
Flask + SQLAlchemy + SQLite, server-rendered templates, no build step. Chosen deliberately for a small private group: one process, one file of data, nearly zero maintenance. Email goes out over SMTP, so any transactional provider (Postmark, Mailgun, SES, …) works via its SMTP endpoint.
python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
export FLASK_APP=wsgi.py
flask create-invite # prints the first registration URL
flask runWithout SMTP configured, outgoing email (including verification links) is printed to the console — handy for local testing.
After the founding member (Nova) and the designated backup have registered and verified, grant each admin status from the server — this is the only way to do it (no UI path exists):
flask set-admin nova@example.com
flask set-admin backup@example.comflask set-admin <email> --revoke removes it again.
export SECRET_KEY="$(python -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))')"
export SERVER_NAME=friendfind.example.com # used for links in emails/CLI
export SMTP_HOST=smtp.postmarkapp.com SMTP_USER=... SMTP_PASSWORD=...
export MAIL_FROM="FriendFind <hello@friendfind.example.com>"
gunicorn wsgi:appThe database defaults to instance/friendfind.db (SQLite); set DATABASE_URL
for Postgres if you prefer. Schedule the reminder job daily:
17 9 * * * cd /srv/friendfind && .venv/bin/flask send-reminderspython -m pytest