2.8 KiB
Document Transcription System
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.md first.
Then review ver1/ver1.md for completion scope and ver1/ver1-step1-results.md for current architecture-consolidation status.
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 sources of handwritten, typed, or typeset documents, run asynchronous transcription jobs, review and edit transcript revisions, and search across accepted text.
Core capabilities:
- document upload and metadata capture
- asynchronous transcription with visible job status
- transcription prompt management with one Markdown file per prompt for human refinement over time
- revision history for transcript edits
- 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.
Documentation Map
- Architecture and technical design: architecture.md
- Version 1 implementation plan: ver1/ver1.md
- Version 1 Step 1 plan: ver1/ver1-step1.md
- Version 1 Step 1 results: ver1/ver1-step1-results.md
- Architecture decision records (ADR index): adr/README.md
- Runtime and deployment requirements: requirements.md
- Error handling policy and operational guidance: error_handling.md
- Domain context and transcription policy: intent.md
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.