The Ghost Project Has a Name: fr3n

Remember the “ghost project” I teased in my last post? The one that stole all my blog-writing time? Well, the ghost has a name now: fr3n.

What started as a mobile app idea back in February has evolved into something much bigger — a full creator community platform. I kicked off the monorepo on April 11th and haven’t looked up since.

From Zero to Monorepo in a Month

The first week was pure infrastructure. Initial commit, renamed it to fr3n, threw in a thirdweb-auth-next starter as the frontend base. By day two I already had a frontend deployment and SST infra wired up. By day three, locale translations and a copilot instructions file (because yes, I talk to my AI tools about my own codebase).

Then came the fun part: RizzR3n — fr3n’s design system. I built it as a standalone package, split into atoms, molecules, and patterns. It forced me to think about component APIs from day one. The main frontend imports RizzR3n components directly, and the creator hub will use them as drag-and-drop building blocks for fan pages.

The Stack So Far

• Frontend: Next.js with SST deployment to AWS
• Database: Started with Prisma, already exploring ElectroDB for DynamoDB (Creavings taught me how powerful single-table design can be)
• Infra: SST stacks for API, frontend, secrets — the usual serverless setup
• Design System: RizzR3n as its own package with animated hero sections and the works

What’s Different This Time

With Creavings, I built the marketplace first and the community second. With fr3n, the community IS the product. Creators get their own subdomain, their own page, their own audience. No middlemen. The tech serves the relationship between creator and fan.

What’s Next

I’m deep into the API layer now — Hono handlers on Lambda, auth flows, tenant management. The pace is intense but sustainable. When you care about what you’re building, 2am commits don’t feel like overtime.

More updates soon. Or in two months. You know how I am with this blog.