~/meetings / 2026-01-15
Meeting #6

> 2026-01-15

Hands-on build session. Whit walked Lawrence through the Seafood SKU Lookup codebase — Express server, JSON data structure, and the fish name matching logic. They deployed it to Vercel and spent the second half of the meeting trying to wire it into Siri via Apple Shortcuts, getting most of the way there.

2 attendees(Whit, Lawrence)
##topics covered
  1. 01.Node.js packages explained — Express (API server), CORS (web security), FS (file system access)
  2. 02.Express server walkthrough — setting up the app, port 3000, loading the fish data from data.json
  3. 03.JSON data structure — each fish has a SKU and an array of all valid name aliases (common + scientific)
  4. 04.findSku function — nested loop, toLowerCase/trim for case-insensitive fuzzy matching
  5. 05.API endpoint: GET /api/sku/:fishName — returns JSON with fishName, sku, and found boolean
  6. 06.Live local demo — running the server at localhost:3000, testing SKU lookups in the browser
  7. 07.URL encoding explained — percent-20 for spaces in URLs
  8. 08.Vercel deploy — connecting GitHub repo, configuring root directory, deploying the Express server
  9. 09.Vercel file system limitation — serverless functions can't read from the local file system the same way
  10. 10.GitHub explained — code storage, version management, auto-deploy on push
  11. 11.Claude (AI) used to scaffold the project and generate the Siri setup guide
  12. 12.Brindl (pet management app) briefly shown — enclosures and animals, task reminders
  13. 13.Vibe coding discussed — coding with Claude Code without reading the code directly
  14. 14.Apple Shortcuts setup for Siri integration — Ask for Input → Get Contents of URL → Get Dictionary Value → Show Result
  15. 15.Troubleshooting Siri shortcut — text input vs voice input, URL percent-encoding for spaces, global vs in-app trigger
  16. 16.Speak Text action — having Siri read the SKU result back aloud
  17. 17.Shortcut nearly functional by end of meeting; Lawrence to finish setup via texted guide
##decisions & next steps
  • →Whit to text Lawrence the Siri setup guide to finish the shortcut configuration
← meeting #5meeting #7 →