🚀 AI Content Engine

AI Content Engine (ACE) is a Next.js 16 app that helps small businesses generate practical, channel-specific social content plans in seconds ⚡. It turns three inputs (business type, target audience, and goal) into a five-day execution blueprint with ready-to-use ideas for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook/LinkedIn, hashtags, and learning resources 📈.

🎯 Why this exists

Most businesses know they should post consistently but struggle with what to post next 🤔. ACE is built to reduce that friction by giving users a concrete action plan they can execute immediately ✅.

🧠 Core capabilities

• AI strategy generation via OpenRouter (/api/generate-content) 🤖.
• Structured outputs: title, overview, Instagram plan, TikTok plan, Facebook/LinkedIn plan, hashtag plan, and a 5-day action plan 🗂️.
• Curated video recommendations to help users execute each strategy 🎥.
• Local free-tier usage tracking (5 free generations/day per browser) 🆓.
• Stripe checkout + verification flow for Pro upgrades 💳.
• Firebase Auth support (Google provider, browser persistence) 🔐.

🧩 Full blueprint

1) 🛠️ Product flow

1. User opens the marketing site/dashboard.
2. User submits:
   • business type
   • target audience
   • goal
3. API validates payload (required fields + max lengths).
4. Server requests generation from OpenRouter.
5. Response is parsed into strict JSON sections.
6. UI renders a practical 5-day strategy and related recommendations.
7. Free plan usage is tracked in localStorage.
8. User can upgrade to Pro through Stripe checkout.

2) 🏗️ System architecture

• Frontend: Next.js App Router with React 19 + TypeScript ⚛️.
• Styling/UX: Tailwind CSS 4, Framer Motion, and Three.js scene components 🎨.
• Backend routes:
  • POST /api/generate-content
  • POST /api/checkout
  • GET /api/checkout/verify
• AI provider: OpenRouter chat completions API 🤖.
• Payments: Stripe subscriptions 💸.
• Auth: Firebase client auth utilities 🔐.
• Config source of truth: app/lib/site.ts.

3) 📦 Data contract (AI output shape)

The generation pipeline expects these JSON keys:

• title
• overview
• instagram_plan
• tiktok_plan
• facebook_linkedin_plan
• hashtag_plan
• five_day_plan (exactly 5 items)
• video_topics (3 to 4 items)

4) 📊 Plans and limits

• Free: 5 generations/day (browser-local tracking) 🆓.
• Pro: unlimited generations (subscription flow scaffolded with Stripe) 🌟.

5) 🗺️ Project structure

app/
  api/
    generate-content/route.ts
    checkout/route.ts
    checkout/verify/route.ts
  components/
  lib/
    generator.ts
    site.ts
    usage.ts
    stripe.ts
    firebase.ts
  dashboard/page.tsx
  pricing/page.tsx
  page.tsx
public/

🧰 Tech stack

• Framework: Next.js 16.2
• Language: TypeScript 5
• UI: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Framer Motion
• 3D/visuals: Three.js + React Three Fiber + Drei
• AI: OpenRouter
• Payments: Stripe
• Auth: Firebase

🔧 Environment variables

Create .env.local in the project root:

# App
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL=http://localhost:3000

# OpenRouter
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...
OPENROUTER_MODEL=openai/gpt-4o-mini

# Stripe
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=...
STRIPE_PRO_PRICE_ID=...

# Firebase (client)
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_API_KEY=...
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN=...
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID=...
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_STORAGE_BUCKET=...
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_MESSAGING_SENDER_ID=...
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_APP_ID=...

▶️ Run locally

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

📜 Scripts

• npm run dev – start local dev server 🧪
• npm run build – production build 🏁
• npm run start – run production server 🌐
• npm run lint – lint codebase 🔍

💬 Skills

• Product strategy framing for early-stage SaaS 🧭
• Prompt and output-structure design for AI marketing workflows ✍️
• Next.js app architecture and feature decomposition 🧱
• Growth-oriented landing page and conversion copy 📣
• API-first integration planning (OpenRouter, Stripe, Firebase) 🔌

🛣️ Roadmap ideas

• Save and export generated strategies 💾.
• Team collaboration and shared workspaces 🤝.
• Calendar integrations and scheduled posting workflows 🗓️.
• Brand voice memory and campaign history 🧬.
• Analytics feedback loop for recommendation tuning 📈.

📄 License

MIT License