transcription/docs/ver1/index_v1.md

Document Transcription System Overview

This project is a production application for transcribing and preserving historical family documents. It is intentionally designed for personal-scale use, with a simplicity-first architecture that is easy to operate and easy to extend.

Start Here

Read architecture_v1.md first.

The architecture page is the primary technical reference and defines:

• deployed topology and infrastructure limits
• module boundaries and dependency flow
• processing life cycle and data ownership
• test strategy, risk controls, and extension path

What The Application Does

At a high level, users upload images or PDFs as content sources for handwritten, typed, or typeset documents, run asynchronous transcription jobs, review optional revisions, and search across accepted text.

Core capabilities:

• document grouping with one or more content sources and metadata capture
• asynchronous transcription with visible job status
• immutable original transcription persisted with each job (plus provider/model/prompt metadata)
• transcription prompt management with one Markdown file per prompt for human refinement over time
• optional revisions for user-authored edits of original immutable transcription text
• full-text search over accepted transcripts
• export of transcript data

Production Operating Model

The system runs with minimal operational overhead:

• PostgreSQL in a dedicated Docker container is considered extremely lightweight and simple for this system
• MongoDB in a dedicated Docker container is also considered extremely lightweight and simple for document-centric persistence
• a three-container deployment (app, PostgreSQL, MongoDB) is a simple and acceptable baseline
• no required queue or search-engine containers in the baseline setup

This operating model keeps deployment and maintenance simple while preserving clean boundaries for future scale.

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Documentation Map

• System Overview (this document)
• System Design Intent
• Transcription Methodology
• System Architecture
• System Requirements
• Data model
• Error Handling Policy
• Implementation Plan

Glossary

• Document-oriented persistence: Storing data as flexible records instead of fixed relational rows.
• Prompt artifact: A single Markdown file that defines one transcription prompt and is edited independently.
• System of record: The authoritative persistent store for canonical data.