phonograph/README.md

# Phonograph

Phonograph is a friendly, collaborative data platform for nerds of all stripes,
built around PostgreSQL.

Contemporary browser-centric platforms like Airtable open new frontiers for data
engineering, but they suffer from limitations that conventional databases have
long since addressed: relational data models are an afterthought; row-level
security is missing; third party integrations must be implemented piecemeal for
lack of a standardized API. Phonograph addresses these shortfalls by
implementing an accessible front-end interface backed by an existing, mature
database management system.

![Screenshot of multi-cursor editing, as well as a dropdown menu with a highlighted option labeled "PostgreSQL credentials"](./docs/screenshot_multi_cursor.png)

## Browser Compatibility Note

[CSS anchor positioning](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Anchor_positioning)
is a relatively new API, and Phonograph uses it extensively. Browser support is
now fairly good, but
[Firefox users in particular](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1988225)
should upgrade to version 147 or newer for best experience.

## Development Quickstart

The Phonograph repository comes with a [mise-en-place](https://mise.jdx.dev/)
configuration to automatically manage the development environment:

- `mise install` installs language runtimes and tooling.
- `mise run build-css && mise run build-svelte` builds browser assets.
- `mise run docker-services` runs a Postgres container for local development.
- `mise run server` compiles and runs the server with the dev profile.

## Configuration

Refer to [the .env.example file](./.env.example) for configuration options. An
external OAuth2 provider is required to manage authentication.

# The Phonograph Authorization Model

Refer to documentation in [docs/auth.md](./docs/auth.md).

# Copyright and License

All original source code in this repository is copyright (C) 2025 Second System
Technologies LLC and distributed under the terms in
[the "LICENSE" file](./LICENSE). Certain third-party assets within
[the "static" directory](./static) may be governed by different licenses, for
example the Open Font License or MIT License, as stated by their original
authors. Copies of each relevant license have been included alongside these
files as needed.

# LLM Code Policy

Large language model code generation is permitted sparingly in very limited
cases, for example for completing clearly defined transformations which span
multiple files and are not supported by conventional code actions. All code
generated by LLMs is considered reflective of its author, and authors are
expected to thoroughly and frequently review before committing affected work.

As of this writing, models display a strong bias towards patterns which are well
represented in public open source projects. This can cause them to tend towards
suboptimal one-size-fits-most or simply outdated coding practices in certain
circumstances. LLM assistance should be sufficiently constrained to avoid
allowing outputs to dictate or implicitly guide significant design decisions.

Furthermore, current language models broadly behave adversarily, in the sense
that they are optimized to make perceiving model outputs versus non-model
outputs as difficult as possible. This can make generated code uniquely
challenging to review effectively. In this context, non-trivial business logic,
particularly logic with security implications, may not be implemented with
direct assistance from LLM tools.

Examples of LLM-assisted changes in practice:

- Replacing SVG icons with similar webfont icons from a different icon pack.
  (Revision `ztrnxzqv` (Git `a8dd49f7`))