Build your own Instagram.

# Build an original app inspired by Instagram

You are an experienced product designer and full-stack engineer. Build a working, polished MVP from the brief below. Implement the core journeys end to end; a static mockup is not sufficient. Inspect the current environment, make sensible implementation decisions, and get started. Ask a question only if a missing answer genuinely blocks implementation.

Starting platform: Web. Explicit customized Product & audience and Tech stack requirements take precedence over this starting target.

## Product & audience
Build an original photo-sharing community called Framefolk, inspired by Instagram. It is for a small group sharing their own photography. The core journey is uploading and captioning a photo, following a photographer, browsing a chronological image feed, and saving a photo to a private collection. Start with photos rather than a complete short-video network.

## Design
Create an original image-first interface with a restrained palette, a responsive photo feed, profile galleries, and a clear upload preview. Preserve image aspect ratios, expose alt text and captions, distinguish private saves from public reactions, and avoid automatic infinite motion or fake engagement numbers.

## Features
1. Profiles and follows: create photographer profiles, follow/unfollow accounts, and support public or approved-follower visibility. Pending follow approval and blocked users must be enforced server-side.

2. Photo publishing: upload owned JPEG/PNG images within documented limits, crop or retain aspect ratio, enter caption and alt text, and preview before publishing. Normalize orientation, strip sensitive EXIF location metadata, and generate thumbnail variants.

3. Feed and discovery: show followed accounts newest-first, paginate profiles, search public profiles and captions, and provide a small editor-curated discovery view. Do not invent a personalized recommendation engine.

4. Likes and comments: toggle one like per member/photo, add and remove permitted comments, and derive counts from stored records. Handle optimistic updates, retries, and deleted photos consistently.

5. Saved collections and moderation: privately save photos into named collections, remove saves, report content, block accounts, and let moderators remove offending uploads with an audit trail. Deletion must remove accessible media variants.

## Tech stack
Use TypeScript with an authenticated API, PostgreSQL, and object storage with authorized image delivery. Decode and validate images on the server, limit upload size/dimensions, and process derivatives in a bounded job. Keep media URLs scoped to visibility rules and render captions safely. If storage infrastructure is absent, document the setup rather than simulating multi-user uploads.

## Data & behavior
User; Profile {visibility}; Follow {followerId, followedId, state}; Photo {ownerId, mediaKey, width, height, caption, altText, state}; Variant; Like; Comment; Collection; CollectionItem; Block; Report; ModerationAction. Collections are owner-private; shared photo permission remains necessary even when a member saved it.

Acceptance checks and scope:
Test a rotated upload, invalid MIME content, denied private-photo download, duplicate like retries, follow approval, revoked photo access in collections, and complete deletion of variants. Exclude Reels, live streaming, copyrighted music, paid creator campaigns, and automated face recognition.

## Originality and assets
The named product is a reference for general workflows only. Use an original product name, visual identity, wording, layout, and assets. Do not copy proprietary code, branded logos, distinctive screens, private APIs, paid templates, or protected media. Use original or appropriately licensed sample data and assets. Build from this brief rather than scraping the reference service. Do not imply affiliation with the referenced company.

## Implementation quality
- Make every visible control work, with clear loading, success, empty, validation, and failure states. Remove controls for unimplemented features.
- Support the target platform and responsive or resizable layouts where appropriate. Use platform-appropriate accessibility semantics, labels, keyboard operation, visible focus, sufficient contrast, and reduced-motion preferences. Provide alternatives for drag-only interactions.
- Validate inputs at the relevant boundary. Treat imported or user-generated content as untrusted; render it safely. Confirm destructive actions or offer undo.
- Keep state changes reliable across navigation and reloads. Never silently lose edits. Handle persistence and network errors with an actionable message.
- Keep the scope realistic. Prioritize the complete primary journey. If a custom Features section differs from the baseline, update the data model, design, and acceptance checks to match it; explicit custom requirements take precedence over baseline assumptions.
- Provide realistic original sample content and a useful empty state. Keep sample data clearly separate from user-created data.

## Delivery and verification
1. Inspect the repository and outline the implementation in a few sentences.
2. Implement the app and connect its actual data flow. Continue until the primary journey works.
3. Run appropriate checks and test the acceptance cases above on the target platform. Verify responsive layouts and keyboard navigation when browser tools are available. For native projects, build with the available SDK and test an emulator or device when possible; report any missing native verification honestly. For games, verify the rules and gameplay loop, not only the menus.
4. Fix observed failures, then provide the runnable result, setup/run instructions, a brief explanation of what is implemented, and any specific configuration or verification limits.

This is a focused MVP. Do not add billing, AI services, or unrelated features unless explicitly requested in the brief. Start building now.