GemMate
Noticing when someone goes quiet
Role
Backend, database design, admin panel
Timeline
2025
Status
Running in production
Stack
Stack
GemMate is a wellbeing companion. People add the family and friends they care about, then log their mood and their interactions each day. The mobile app is React Native, built by someone else on the team. Everything behind it is mine.
Schema and privacy
The data model is the product here, because a circle of family and friends is exactly the kind of graph that leaks if you get authorization wrong. I designed the schema and the row-level security policies that keep each person's circle private, enforced in the database rather than in application code where a missed check becomes a breach.
The escalation engine
The feature that matters most is noticing absence. When someone stops logging for a defined period, triggers fire on several conditions and reach out through Twilio for messaging and SendGrid for email. Silence is the signal the app is built to catch.
Admin surface
A Next.js landing page and admin panel with user management, escalation monitoring so the team can see who the system flagged and what happened next, and blog CRUD for the content side.