Neighbour help app

Arend-Jan Van Drongelen — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:31:28 +0000

This is a submission for the DEV Weekend Challenge: Community

The Community

I live in an apartment building with a unique demographic: a mix of retirees (65+) and young professionals in their thirties.

While the vibe is generally friendly, there is a bit of an individualistic culture where people mostly keep to themselves. I realized there is a massive, untapped potential for intergenerational support :) The seniors have time and wisdom, while the 30-somethings have tech skills and mobility.
I wanted to build something to bridge that gap.

What I Built

BurenBand is a private neighbourhood help platform for residents of an apartment complex. The core idea: neighbours helping neighbours (asking for a hand with groceries, offering tech support, or arranging help with moving) within a trusted, resident-only community.

The app is a full-stack Progressive Web App built on Next.js 15 and Firebase.

Key features:

Resident gate: only people who live in the complex can join, enforced both on the frontend and in Firestore security rules.
Two-way posts: residents can post a Help Wanted or Offer Help request; each type has its own
interaction flow
Real-time chat: when someone responds to a post, both parties get a private in-app conversation to arrange the details, with quick-reply suggestions.
Trust & reputation: every post card shows the author's trust badge, built from their history of completed help actions.
Notifications: a Firestore-backed bell icon shows unread responses; confetti fires for the
right person at the right moment
Admin panel: residents can report posts; admins can review and close reports

-Language: Dutch and English, switchable at runtime, persisted per user

Accessibility — senior mode with larger text and wider buttons; three colour themes
Installable PWA — works on Android (Chrome) and iOS (Safari) as a home screen app, with a service worker for offline resilience.

Demo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wk4x12niyjdsmJ4xlUV8Bt-1PqQDvizv/view?usp=drivesdk

Code

https://github.com/ProgramTjan/burenband

How I Built It

This project was built during a focused sprint in close collaboration with Claude Sonnet 4.6 using Claude Code (CLI).

The AI Pair-Programming Workflow

I acted as the architect and tester while Claude handled the implementation.

The Loop: I described features in plain language (often Dutch) → Claude edited the files directly via CLI → I tested the runtime behavior and reported bugs → Claude traced the root cause and fixed it.

Key Technical Decisions

Auth & State: Implemented a Screen state machine to manage complex branching between Google Login, email signup, and onboarding without UI glitches.

Smart Database Rules: Iterated on Firestore security rules to handle edge cases, such as making profile fields optional to prevent "save-fails" during the initial onboarding gate.

Custom i18n & UI: Built a lightweight translation system using React Context (no external libs) and used useRef to ensure "success confetti" only fires for the correct user.

PWA Ready: Automated the generation of splash screens and icons at build time using ImageMagick.

The Stack:

Framework:
Next.js 15.2 (App Router), React 19

Language:
TypeScript

Backend:
Firebase (Firestore + Auth)

Styling:
Tailwind CSS & Lucide Icons

AI Tooling:
Claude Sonnet 4.6 via Claude Code CLI