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Jalel Dridi
All work

Potluck · 2026

Realtime messaging

Buyer and seller chat with about 750 ms latency and read-only clients.

bigpotluck.com/profile
A kitchen page on Potluck with Follow and Message buttons and a menu
A kitchen page. Message opens a thread with the seller before any order exists.

Why it existed

Buyers and sellers needed to talk before and after an order, in real time, without the client ever being trusted with write access.

What I built

  • PostgreSQL is the system of record; messages are mirrored by the server to a realtime database.
  • Clients are read-only, using short-lived tokens that carry the threads the user belongs to.
  • Per-order threads, system messages at order events, pre-purchase direct messages and admin oversight.

Outcome

About 750 ms from send to display across browsers.

On screen

The same kitchen page on a phone
The same page on a phone, where most buyers are.

How it fits together

Writes go through the server to Postgres; clients only ever read the mirror.
NextInfrastructure and release pipeline