Platform Changelog

What's New

A full history of improvements to the Italian American Heritage Archive, from Pi Day through today.

v1.0LaunchMarch 14, 2026Week 1, Day 1

Italian American Heritage Archive is Born — Pi Day

Built from scratch in about 10 hours on Pi Day, the Italian American Heritage Archive launched as a working platform for Italian American oral history preservation.

Pi Day — ~10 hours from blank screen to live platform

Changes in this release

The Recording Interface

An elder-friendly recording page designed for users 80+: one question in 32px text, one large green button to record, and a simple stop-and-submit flow. No navigation, no modals, no confusion.

The AI Processing Pipeline

Deepgram Nova-2 transcribes uploaded audio, then Claude Sonnet 4 generates a magazine-style narrative, pull quote, themes, mentioned names, locations, and photo queries — all in structured JSON.

31 Culturally Specific Prompts

The prompt library launched with 31 hand-crafted questions organized into six Italian American cultural categories: La Cucina, La Famiglia, Il Quartiere, Immigration & Identity, Faith & Traditions, and Lingua e Dialetto.

The Heritage Archive

A public gallery of all published stories, filterable by theme. Each card displays a pull quote and links to the full magazine-style story page with embedded maps and Pexels photography.

Admin Panel for Organizers

A protected admin area where family organizers manage prompts, view submitted recordings, trigger AI processing, and publish stories to the public archive.

Supabase Foundation

The full backend launched on Supabase: PostgreSQL with Row Level Security, Supabase Storage for audio files, Supabase Auth for organizer accounts, and three Edge Functions running the AI pipeline.

v1.1StabilityMarch 15, 2026Week 1, Day 2

Storage, Enrichment & the Photo Pipeline

The day after launch was spent hardening storage access, enriching the data model, and adding the Pexels photo caching system.

Changes in this release

Anonymous Upload & Read Fixed

Storage RLS policies were updated so that unregistered elders can upload recordings through the elder-friendly interface, and published story photos load for any public visitor — no account required.

Story Metadata Indexes

Database indexes added on the most queried fields — public filter, theme, and created date — so the Heritage Archive loads quickly even as the story count grows.

Narrative & Locations Fields

The story_metadata schema was expanded to store the full AI-generated narrative text and a structured locations array, enabling the Google Maps embed on each story page.

Photo Query Caching

Claude generates three atmospheric photo search queries per story. Those queries are now sent to the Pexels API and the results cached in the database so the story page loads instantly without re-fetching images on every visit.

v1.2New FeaturesMarch 16–17, 2026Week 1, Days 3–4

Articles, Organizers & Feedback

The platform gained an articles system, a formal organizer data model, and a built-in feedback form — laying the groundwork for the community layer.

Changes in this release

Articles Table

A new articles schema was added to support long-form editorial content published alongside oral histories. The first article — "Heritage Archives: Built in 12 Hours" — went live at launch.

Organizers Table & Auto-Registration

A dedicated organizers table now tracks every user who creates an account. A database trigger automatically creates an organizer record on sign-up, so the admin panel is available from the moment someone registers.

Feedback Form

A feedback table and form were added to every public page, giving beta organizers a direct channel to report what's broken, what's confusing, and what they'd like to see. This feedback directly shapes the roadmap.

v1.3New FeaturesMarch 18–20, 2026Week 1, Days 5–7

Super Admin, Story Titles, Speakers & Security

A super admin role was added for platform governance, story detail fields were expanded, and a round of targeted security improvements tightened the platform.

Changes in this release

Super Admin Role

A privileged super admin role was added to the organizers table. Super admins can manage all user accounts and approve organizer registrations from a dedicated admin section.

Promote to AIIA

A one-click "Promote to AIIA" action lets super admins flag a story for featuring on ItalianAmericans.com. A confirmation dialog prevents accidental promotions.

Story Title Field

Organizers can now give each story a custom title that overrides the auto-generated one. Titles appear in the archive gallery and at the top of every story page.

Speaker Name

A dedicated speaker name field was added to story metadata, making it easy to credit the person telling the story separately from who recorded it.

Storyteller Name & Hide Video

The storyteller's name can now be captured at the time of recording submission. A hide-video toggle lets organizers share the narrative text without exposing the source video.

References Text

A free-text references field was added to each story so organizers can cite related documents, archival sources, or family records that informed or corroborated the story.

Tighter RLS & Story Photos Policies

Public access to story_metadata was restricted so only properly published stories appear in the archive. New storage policies were added for the story-photos bucket. Security advisories from the Supabase dashboard were resolved.

v1.4LatestMarch 21–22, 2026Week 1, Days 8–9

Storytellers, Media Library & Family Trees

The platform's most ambitious week: storytellers became first-class citizens, a central media library launched, family tree support arrived, and organizer profiles gained family name and region fields.

Changes in this release

Storytellers Are Front and Center

Every story now shows the name of the person who told it. Across the archive gallery, featured story cards, and each individual story page, a "Told by [Name]" line gives storytellers the credit they deserve. You can also search the archive by storyteller name.

Interviewer Name

A new interviewer name field lets organizers credit the person who asked the question and conducted the session — recognizing that oral history is a conversation, not just a monologue.

Photo Display Mode

Organizers can now choose how photos appear on each story page: a standard inline display or an immersive full-bleed cinematic mode for more visually striking stories.

The Media Library

A central Media Library lets organizers upload and manage visual assets independently from any single story. A photo picker modal makes it easy to reuse images across stories without re-uploading.

Family Tree Integration

A dedicated family_trees table and an improved GEDCOM file uploader make it easier to import existing family trees from tools like Ancestry and FamilySearch — and connect them to stories in the archive.

Family Name & Region for Organizers

Organizer profiles now include optional family name and Italian region fields. These help personalize the admin experience and will soon be used to filter stories by family and region of origin.

Comprehensive Security Hardening

A thorough pass through all RLS policies, storage bucket rules, and function-level access controls resolved all outstanding security advisories and tightened the platform for growing user activity.

Public Beta — Free to Join

Help Shape What Comes Next

Every feature listed here was built because of feedback from beta organizers. Create a free account, try the platform, and tell us what you'd like to see in the next update.

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