Treeify
A family-tree platform where relatives build one shared, private tree together.
- My role
- Architect and full-stack developer
- Status
- Live, in active development
- Built with
- Next.js, Fastify, Neo4j, Supabase, Tailwind, Framer Motion
- Who it's for
- Families
- 3
- access roles per tree
- Free
- for small family trees
- Graph
- native relationship model
Why it needed to exist
Family history lives in scattered places: relatives' memories, old photos and paper records. Most family-tree tools are built for one person researching alone, so the knowledge of the wider family never gets captured in one place.
Families, especially large multi-generational ones, who want to preserve their history together and keep it private.
What it does
- Shared editing with approvalsRelatives add people and relationships; changes go through an approval workflow so the tree stays trustworthy.
- Roles per treeAdmin, member and viewer permissions are scoped to each tree, so one person can have different access in different families.
- Privacy-firstTrees are private by default, with controls over who can see and change what.
- Simple sign-inEmail and OAuth sign-in with proper validation.
What I did
I architected the platform and built it across the stack: the system design, the permission model, the API and the interface.
How it works
Interface
Next.jsTree views, editing, sign-in. Tailwind and Framer Motion.
API
FastifyBusiness rules, approvals and permission checks.
Data
Neo4j + SupabaseNeo4j stores the family graph; Supabase handles auth and user data.
Choices that shaped it
- A graph database instead of relational tables
- Families are relationships. Questions like "how are these two people related?" are natural graph queries, and awkward chains of joins in SQL.
- Approvals instead of open editing
- When many relatives edit one tree, trust matters more than speed. Approvals stop mistakes from silently spreading.
- Permissions per tree, not per user
- People belong to several families. Scoping roles to each tree matches how families actually work.
- Free for small trees
- It removes the barrier to starting, and the architecture is ready for paid tiers as trees grow.
Where it stands
Treeify is live and publicly available. The architecture is ready for tiered subscriptions and payment integration.
Next: Natural-language relationship questions over the family graph ("How is Priya related to me?"); Tiered subscriptions and payments.