SkipOps

Plain English, start here

What SkipOps does — and exactly where we are

SkipOps runs the day for a UK rubbish-clearance firm, entirely through Telegram. The boss texts jobs in plain words. The system works out the smartest route for every van. The crew get tap-by-tap job cards on their phones. The boss watches it happen live and ends up with a photo-proof record of every job. No money or pricing anywhere in version 1 — the win is told in saved fuel, time and wages.

1set-up: shell + validation done, now a 6-step form wizard to build
1route planner: a working core that needs a rework
7stages designed and waiting to be built
built & tested part-built to build

The whole thing on one page

The loop, top to bottom

Five moving parts. Set the firm up once, then the same loop repeats every working day.

flowchart LR
  A["① Set the firm up
(once)"] --> B["② & ③ Boss texts
jobs"] B --> C["④ System plans the
smartest day"] C --> D["⑤–⑦ Crew get job cards
+ post photos"] D --> E["⑥ ⑧ ⑨ Boss watches live +
gets the record"] E -. "new job or change
→ re-plan" .-> C classDef here fill:#eef2ff,stroke:#4f46e5,stroke-width:2px,color:#3730a3; class A here;
We are here — building stage ①, the set-up.

Every stage — what it's for, and where we are

The 9 stages in detail

Each one: the plain-English objective (what we're trying to achieve), a quick picture, and an honest done / still-to-do.

Set the firm up

manual step wizard · 3 of 6 forms built (Hours, Vans, Crew) · 3 to go

The objective: before SkipOps can run anyone's day, it has to learn how that firm works — the six things its features need. The boss fills in a quick 6-step setup wizard — one simple screen per thing (hours, vans, crew, sites, materials, checklist), tap and type, then Next. No AI, no guessing: each step is a plain form with the right controls (day toggles, time pickers, an "add a van" list, dropdowns for where each waste goes). Our own code checks a step is complete before it lets you on, and the firm is saved at the end. (Direction changed 24 Jun — the earlier AI-chat interview is retired for setup. Calibration is structured data entry, so a deterministic form wizard is faster for the boss, free to run, and reliable to test. The AI stays where it earns its keep: the runtime, where the boss drops a job in plain English. We scaffold all 6 step templates first, then build each step's real form one by one — Hours first.)

What we gather from the firm → what it powers: their vans & how much each holds, their crew & hours, what happens to each kind of waste, where the yard and tips are, and the standard job checklist. Every answer feeds a feature — nothing is asked "just in case".
flowchart LR
  subgraph G ["What we gather"]
    V["Vans + capacity"]
    M["Each waste type
+ where it goes"] S["Yard + tips
on a map"] C["Crew + hours"] K["Job checklist"] end subgraph P ["What it powers"] R["Smart routes +
full-van trips"] J["Crew job cards"] D["Boss live map"] Pr["Photo-proof
record"] end V --> R M --> R S --> R S --> D C --> J K --> J K --> Pr

Done

  • The data shapes + strict validation — each step's "is it complete?" check, reused as-is by the form wizard (backend, 60 tests, tsc clean)
  • The manual wizard skeleton — all 6 step templates, the "step N of 6" strip, Back/Next, review + save-the-firm step (screenshot-checked at phone size)
  • Retired the AI chat path for setup — the per-section Haiku engine, chat transports + real-Claude wiring all removed; the backend is now just mint-session + validate-and-save
  • Step 1 — Hours, the first real form (24 Jun): tap-to-toggle day chips + start/finish time pickers, opening on a sensible Mon–Fri 08:00–16:00 week; Next stays greyed until at least one day + valid times are set, and the hours save through to the review. Screenshot-checked at phone size; passed the headed + manual gate.
  • Step 2 — Vans, the add-a-van list (24 Jun): each row is a van name (required) + reg (optional); tap "+ Add another van" to add a row, ✕ to remove one — the last row can't be removed, so there's always at least one van. Next stays greyed until every van has a name, and the vans save through to the review. Screenshot-checked at phone size; passed the headed + manual gate.
  • Step 3 — Crew, the add-a-person list (24 Jun): each row is a person's name (required); tap "+ Add another person" to add a row, ✕ to remove one — the last row can't be removed, so there's always at least one person. Vans hold no crew info; daily roster is a separate runtime step (not asked here). Next stays greyed until every person has a name, and the crew save through to the review. Screenshot-checked at phone size; passed the headed + manual gate.
  • Step 4 — Sites, the slim precondition (24 Jun, re-scoped per Alex's correction): just a "Do you have a yard?" toggle + a single hub address field. The depot label auto-derives ("The yard" or "Office"). Next-gates on the address. No discovery here — Alex was clear: location should be secondary to material, so per-material drop-site discovery moves to Step 5 (this slice). The Places adapter + sitesClient are kept in the repo because Step 5 will reuse them.

Still to do (build each form)

  • Step 5 — Materials & drop sites (the meaty one): list of materials the firm handles. Per material card: "X drop locations found" expandable → tickable list of tips/scrapyards/wood yards within 30 mi of the hub, suitable for THAT material. Add (Places autocomplete) · Delete · Pin on map (later). Bulk of the work done for the boss via Places + maybe Firecrawl/Apify scrape + LLM check to verify each candidate actually accepts the material (a scrapyard doesn't take soil). Cost surfacing before build.
  • Build the final step's real form — Checklist (the standard 6-step job checklist, confirm or tweak)
  • The map: pin the yard + each tip — turns Sites names into exact locations (needs Google Maps, a small one-off cost)
  • Go live: deploy + point a real test firm at it (spend-gated)

Give the firm its two chats

to build

The objective: every firm gets two Telegram chats — a private one for the boss (the "Gaffer" chat) and a group for the crew (the "Dispatch" group). And a hard wall so one firm can never see another firm's jobs.

flowchart LR
  A["Firm set up"] --> B["Gaffer chat
(boss only)"] A --> C["Dispatch group
(the crew)"] B --> D["Each firm's data
walled off"] C --> D

Done

  • Nothing yet — the design is set

Still to do

  • Wire up the two bots + lock each to its firm
  • Switch on the data walls (security rules) before any real firm's data lands

Boss drops a job

to build

The objective: the boss texts a job the way he'd say it out loud — "clear a garage on Dyke Road tomorrow morning, half a load, before-and-after pics." The system turns that into a proper job (where, how big, when, what photos) and reads it back so any misread is caught on the spot.

flowchart LR
  A["Boss texts it
in plain words"] --> B["System understands:
where, size, when"] B --> C["Job created"] C --> D["Reads it back
to confirm"]

Done

  • Skeleton only

Still to do

  • The "understand the text" step, save the job, and the read-back

Plan the smartest day

core built · rework owed

The objective: given the day's jobs, work out the most efficient round for every van — fewest miles, fullest loads — including nipping back to the yard to empty when a van fills up, then carrying on. This saving (fuel, time, wages) is the whole pitch.

flowchart LR
  A["The day's jobs"] --> C["The planner"]
  B["The vans + capacity"] --> C
  C --> D["Most-efficient
route per van"] D -. "van full →" .-> E["empty at the yard,
then carry on"] E -.-> D

Done

  • The core planner works and is tested (routes, time windows, empty-and-continue)

Still to do

  • It currently plans around cost (money) — rework it to plan around distance + load (no money in v1)
  • Wire in the yard-hub + the per-waste-type consolidation trips

Tell each crew their route

to build

The objective: once the day's planned, each van gets one clear, friendly message — their stops in order, what to expect, and a tap-to-navigate link for each stop that opens their own phone's maps. Nothing new to learn.

flowchart LR
  A["The day's plan"] --> B["Friendly message
per van"] B --> C["Stops in order"] B --> D["Tap-to-navigate
per stop"]

Done

  • Skeleton only

Still to do

  • Turn the cold route into a readable message + the per-stop map links

See where the vans are

to build

The objective: each driver taps "share live location" in Telegram once at the start of the day. That's it — the system now knows where every van is, with no app and no tracking box to fit.

flowchart LR
  A["Driver taps
'share location'"] --> B["System knows
where each van is"] B --> C["Feeds the
boss's live map"]

Done

  • Nothing to build on Telegram's side — by design

Still to do

  • Store the shared location + a morning "share it again" nudge

Photo-proof every job

to build

The objective: the crew snap a before and an after photo and tick the job checklist. The system files them against the job, so there's a permanent, proof-backed record of every clearance — plus a note of exactly who was on that team that day.

flowchart LR
  A["Crew: before +
after photos"] --> C["Filed against
the job"] B["Checklist ticked"] --> C C --> D["Permanent
proof record"]

Done

  • Skeleton only

Still to do

  • Photo capture + storage, checklist tick, the crew snapshot on finish

Re-plan when things change

planner ready · trigger left

The objective: jobs change all day — a new one comes in, one's cancelled, a van finishes early. When that happens the system quietly re-plans the rest of the day and re-sends the routes, without anyone asking.

flowchart LR
  A["New / cancelled job,
or van free early"] --> B["Re-plan the
rest of the day"] B --> C["Re-send the
updated routes"]

Done

  • The planner can already re-plan on demand

Still to do

  • The automatic trigger that fires it the moment something changes

The boss's live dashboard

to build

The objective: one screen for the boss — a live map of his vans and jobs, a list he can filter, and a tap into any job to see its photos, crew, checklist and timings. His whole operation at a glance.

flowchart LR
  A["Live van pins"] --> C["Boss dashboard"]
  B["All the jobs"] --> C
  C --> D["Tap a job → photos,
crew, checklist, times"]

Done

  • Folder is a placeholder

Still to do

  • All of it — the map, the list, the job detail

Staying on track

What's next, in order

Rebuild the set-up as a manual form wizard first, then build the daily loop in the order the day actually runs.

1
Step 5 — Materials & drop sites (the meaty one) next
Stage ① — Steps 1–4 done (Hours · Vans · Crew · slim Sites: yard toggle + hub address). Step 5 is the redesign Alex described: materials lead, drop locations follow. List of materials → per-material card → "X drop locations found within 30 mi of the hub" expandable → tickable list. Add (Places autocomplete) · Delete · Pin on map (deferred). The bulk of the work done for the boss via Places + Firecrawl/Apify scrape of each candidate's site + LLM check that the place ACTUALLY accepts that material (a scrapyard takes metal not soil). Cost: I'll surface real numbers before build (Places + scrape + LLM = paid stack). After this: Checklist.
2
Finish the set-up map
Stage ① — drop-a-pin on the yard + tips, turning Sites names into exact locations. Needs a Google Maps key (small one-off cost). Then one real end-to-end test with a live firm.
3
Rework the route planner's goal
Stage ④ — switch it from "cheapest" to "fewest miles + fullest loads", and wire in the yard-hub trips. The hard maths already works.
4
Build the daily loop
Stages ②③⑤⑥⑦ — the two chats, dropping a job, sending routes, live location, and photo-proof. This is the bulk of the remaining build.
5
Auto re-plan + the boss dashboard
Stages ⑧⑨ — fire the re-plan on any change, and give the boss his live oversight screen.

Mission: 20 paying firms at £75/mo by 5 Nov 2026. Roughly the first stretch is finishing the build; the rest is selling it.