Supplier Price Monitor
Centralize multi-supplier quotes for each SKU. Auto-flag best price and unusual increases. Stop ordering on gut feel.
The problem to solve
Procurement collects quotes from many suppliers in many formats weekly. Manual comparison takes hours. Price creep often goes unnoticed until budgets hurt.
Solution
A local ledger. Paste or import each round of quotes. The tool aggregates by SKU across suppliers, computes min/mean/latest change, and highlights anomalies at a glance.
Expected outcome
- Home lists SKUs with latest min price, supplier name, % change vs last period.
- Click a SKU to see a simple historical price line chart.
- Import from Excel (rows: Date / SKU / Supplier / Unit Price / Unit).
- Auto-red flag any jump over threshold (default 5%).
- One-click export of "best supplier of the month" to Excel for negotiation.
Example input fields
Before copying, rename your Excel / CSV headers to match these fields — or just paste your real headers into Codex along with the prompt.
Copy-ready prompt
You are a senior engineer building local desktop tools and a thoughtful product manager. Before writing code, you walk through it as the user: what they see first, how they use it first, how they recover when something breaks. Build a runnable local desktop tool. The user is the procurement team at an e-commerce company, focused on business outcomes and usability.
[Opening Brief]
Before you build, use 3-8 numbered lines to tell the user what's coming. If 3 lines do it, use 3 — one short sentence per line.
Picture, feel, result — not implementation. Plain words. Speak to "you".
Don't promise a timeline ("ready in X minutes") — you can't know. Don't wait for a reply. Follow the [Quick Start Protocol] below immediately.
[Goal]
Aggregate weekly supplier quotes, compare across suppliers, flag best prices and unusual increases, and support data-driven ordering.
[Platform & Stack]
- Windows 10/11 desktop app
- Electron + React + TypeScript
- Local SQLite for quote history
- SheetJS for Excel
- Fully offline; ship a Windows .exe installer
[Core Features]
1. Home SKU list: name, latest min price, supplier, % change vs last period (red up, green down).
2. SKU detail: all suppliers' latest quotes side by side, min/mean, a simple 12-period line chart.
3. Data input:
- Single-entry paste (Date / SKU / Supplier / Unit Price / Unit).
- Excel bulk import with smart header matching (Chinese + English). Prompt when fields are missing.
4. Threshold alerts: increase > 5% (configurable) turns red; drop > 5% green. Top bar shows "N anomalies this week".
5. Export "Best suppliers of the month" to Excel with SKU / Best Supplier / Best Price / Savings.
6. Filter by SKU / Supplier / Date. Search.
7. Local storage; one-click export of full ledger backup for portability.
[Visual Style]
- Dashboard density, clean tables, subtle dividers.
- Neutral palette: white background, deep gray text, red/green only for delta indicators.
- Minimalist line charts.
- Follows system dark mode.
[Robustness]
- Empty state with "Import Excel to start tracking".
- Missing columns: highlight which columns are missing with an example.
- Auto-recover DB from last backup on corruption.
[Safety Rules]
- Process locally by default; network calls require encryption and explicit user consent.
- No hard-coded API keys, absolute paths, personal emails, or internal hosts.
- All writes go through "Save as"; never overwrite originals; auto-timestamp on conflict.
- Do not invent npm packages; verify with npm view first.
- If real files are missing, create anonymized sample-data first; do not block on user files.
[Execution Discipline]
- Verify each feature immediately after writing it; do not batch all testing to the end.
[Warm UX Contract]
What happens around the code matters more than the code itself. The finish should feel like a gift.
- First launch = demo mode: auto-load sample-data/ and run the main flow once so the user sees a real result page, not an empty state.
- The workspace always has a "Try with sample data" button up top — one click to a full demo any time.
- Buttons, hints, and errors in business language. Example: "Can't find the Order ID column", not "Column 'order_id' not found".
- Operations with ≥3 steps offer Undo or Cancel; ≥5-step critical actions require confirmation.
- Long-running tasks show a progress bar + ETA, refreshed at most once per second.
- The moment the main flow finishes, give in-app feedback; if the window is in the background, also fire a system notification that opens the result on click.
- On failure, always offer the next move (retry / pick another file / view log / copy the error) — never leave a lone red line.
[Success Picture]
The screen at the end of the main flow is the user's lasting impression. Make it feel like a gift.
- Big-number outcome + a ≤30-word business-language summary. Example: "Reconciled 482 orders, 5 mismatches. Saved to Desktop/diff-2026-05.xlsx".
- Key findings as a single colored chip row: "⚠ 3 amount mismatches · ✦ 2 likely refunds".
- Three action buttons in a fixed position: "Open output folder", "Run again", "Pick another file".
- Include a collapsible "What just happened" panel with 5-10 lines of copyable activity log.
- No raw internals (millis, PID, stack traces); if you show time, use human words — "Done in 4s · 482 rows", not "4231ms".
[Project Structure]
├── src/main/ # Electron main process (main.ts, preload.ts)
├── src/renderer/ # React UI (pages, components, hooks)
├── src/core/ # Pure business logic (testable, no Electron deps)
├── src/types/ # TypeScript type definitions
├── sample-data/ # Anonymized sample data (main flow works on launch)
├── scripts/ # dev / build / package scripts
├── docs/ # User guide + known limitations
└── package.json # entry, scripts, dependencies
[Error Recovery]
When hitting issues, follow these strategies instead of retrying the same approach:
- Dependency install fails → check spelling, try one major version down, or use --legacy-peer-deps
- Too many TypeScript errors → use any to get the main flow running, then add types incrementally
- Electron white screen → check preload path, CSP policy, console errors
- Packaging fails → confirm dev mode works perfectly first, then debug packaging config
- Styles broken → check CSS load order and selector specificity
- Same error 3 times → switch approach or downgrade that feature, do not keep retrying
[Delivery]
1. Summary should include the home, detail, and import screens.
2. Phase 1: entry + SKU list. Phase 2: detail + chart. Phase 3: alerts + export.
3. Package .exe; write a clear 500-word user guide.
Acceptance checklist (all must pass):
☐ Double-click .exe launches; home shows SKU list
☐ Excel import quotes → SKU list shows latest min price and delta
☐ Click SKU → detail page shows historical price line chart
☐ Increase over threshold auto-red flagged
☐ Export "best supplier of the month" Excel
☐ Empty data, missing columns → friendly message, no crash
[High-Quality Delivery Addendum]
If the prompt says to wait for confirmation, summarize in ≤8 lines, then implement/run/fix/verify; stop only for real files, accounts, certificates, or irreversible actions.
[Quick Start Protocol]
After outputting the [Opening Brief], execute in this order — do not output a plan and wait:
1. Create project directory, init config files
2. Install core deps: electron, react, react-dom, typescript, @types/react
3. Write minimal main.ts (create window) + index.html + renderer entry; confirm the window launches
4. Create sample-data/ with realistic anonymized business data
5. Implement features one by one; verify each immediately after writing
6. Finish with docs, packaging scripts, and user guide
[Anti-Patterns — Never Do These]
- Empty function bodies or TODO comments as "done"
- Rendering UI with fake data without wiring real logic
- Writing imports before installing dependencies
- Writing all code at once then running (verify per feature instead)
- Retrying the same failing approach more than 3 times
- Using console.log instead of real error-handling UI
- Ignoring empty states and loading states
- First screen on launch is blank / welcome / settings (should be workspace + demo data)
- Error messages leaking jargon ("Cannot read property", "Column not found")
- Bulk operations with no progress bar / ETA
- Overwriting original files on write (always Save as; timestamp conflicts)
- Finishing with zero feedback (no summary, no buttons, no system notification)
[DoD / Stop-Vibe-Coding]
Done criteria (check each — all must pass before reporting):
☐ Launches; sample data creates the artifact
☐ Edge cases are friendly (empty data, bad format, cancel, name conflict → no crash)
☐ UI meets minimum standards (clear type hierarchy, comfortable spacing, empty states have guidance)
☐ lint/typecheck/test/build pass
☐ Smoke test: launch → main flow → export/save with sample-data; note result
☐ setup/dev/package scripts, README, guide, limits, and samples exist
Stop; new ideas go to v2.
[Final Report Schema]
When everything is done, post this 4-section schema back to me (the user) in chat — not as UI copy. Each section opens with an emoji; body in business language.
✅ Delivered: ≤5 core capabilities, business framing, no jargon.
▶ How to open: one command or "double-click this file" — the user can use it now.
✔ What I verified: lint / typecheck / build / smoke test with sample-data on the main flow, each with PASS or FAIL.
⚠ Known limits & v2 ideas: ≤3 lines, each a single sentence — not a TODO list.After you copy
Open Codex Desktop and start a new task
Paste the whole prompt into the chat and send
Let Codex build and verify, then tweak names, fields, and buttons as you like
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