Published: 9/30/2025

The Evolution of AI Tech Packs — From First Prototype to V2.1

We’re building AI tools that make tech packs faster, clearer, and more collaborative. This dev journal retraces our journey—from the earliest prototype to V2.1—so you can see what changed, why it matters, and what’s coming next. (Current as of September 30, 2025.)

Foundations (Nov–Dec 2024): First Tech Pack Generator, Payments, and Sharing

What shipped for users

• First AI Tech Pack generator prototype with image support and CSV/XLSX output.
• We manually drew flat sketches and used these manually drawn flat sketches for our tech packs. There was no ai generated flat sketches.
• Stripe payments baseline and a smoother post-purchase flow (no more redirect hops).
• Shareable links for generated tech packs.
• Early SEO, sitemap, and tagging so people could reliably find the product.

Why it matters
We set up the core loop—upload → generate → review → pay → download/share—so we could iterate quickly in 2025.

Q1 2025: Viewer, Subscriptions, Revisions, and Reliability

What shipped for users

• In-app PDF viewer and view-before-download experience.
• Subscriptions & one-off purchases (with gating/blur preview).
• Revisions + change log inside your tech pack workspace.
• Front & back image support for flats and garment context.
• Smoother sign-in/magic link, rate limiting, and Sentry for crash tracking.

Why it matters
We turned a single-shot generator into a usable workspace where teams can review, iterate, and purchase with confidence.

Q2 2025 (Apr–May): Editing Tools, BOM/Costing, Placement Guide, and Onboarding

What shipped for users

• Vector & manual editing for measurement lines(draw, delete, reposition; later refined).
• BOM and cost sheet improvements; editable materials and sizes.
• Placement Guide (v1) and artwork sections.
• Clearer onboarding (“How it works”), improved landing and app UI.
• Better table views across devices; blog and support content live.

Why it matters
We moved beyond generation: editability and documentation structure started to feel like a proper product, not just a demo.

V1 — June 2025: AI Flat Sketch Generation

The headline
We launched AI Flat Sketch Generation—turn written images into professional flat sketches.

Notable improvements around launch

• Measurement UI & rules tightened; front/back handling improved.
• Many save/persist fixes so edits stick across sessions.
• Free trial experiments (e.g., 2 free generations, staged gating).
• Image pipeline stabilization for larger files and mobile photos (HEIC/JPG/PNG), with compression where needed.

What this unlocked for users
Go from text + reference images to production-ready flats in minutes—then move straight into tech pack documentation.

July 2025: Manual Mode, Mobile, and Performance

What shipped

• Manual Mode to draw/adjust measurement lines without AI detection (with PostHog tracking to compare usage).
• Mobile rendering fixes and UI polish across the editor.
• PDF page-level controls and initial pagination across sections.
• Better feedback loops (thumbs up/down, revision bell, autosave refinements).

Why it matters
AI isn’t perfect; manual mode and mobile polish kept workflows moving when inputs were tricky.

August 2025: Data Table Refactor, Save Reliability, One-Shot, and Admin

What shipped

• Data table refactor across the app (faster, cleaner, fewer crashes).
• Save system refactor (fewer edge-case losses).
• “One-Shot” generation MVP for fast ideas without lengthy setup.
• Enhanced Placement Guide and a separate BOM section.
• Admin upgrades and an office dashboard for live status.
• Image handling hardened (file types/limits, supabase storage, compression).
• Policies & SEO: privacy/TOS, sitemap/robots, IndexNow, meta tags.

Why it matters
Prepared the surface for bigger releases—users got a steadier editor, faster saves, and quicker ways to try ideas.

V1.1 — Early September 2025: Smarter Prompts & Context-Aware Measurements

The headline
We rebuilt the text/prompt system and made measurements context-aware. Paste size charts and product details into the prompt box—our system reads them, aligns them to your garment, and applies them intelligently.

Supporting upgrades

• Polling for faster perceived response & state sync.
• One-time purchase flow after generation (less friction).
• Pricing, SEO, and metadata passes to improve discoverability and conversion.

What this unlocked for users
More accurate flats and measurement tables with fewer back-and-forth edits—you give the context, the system adapts.

V2 — September 19, 2025: Simplified Tech Packs + Detailed Image Extraction

The headline

• Introduced Simplified Tech Packs—a leaner, easier-to-read format that gets you to actionable docs faster.
• Started extracting detailed garment images directly inside your pack: fabric close-ups, artwork previews, trims & label images.

Under the hood

• Pagination & data model aligned to the new format.
• Editor updates for artwork and placement, including front/back pages.
• Stability fixes across saving, filtering, and editing.

What this unlocked for users
Tech packs that look clearer to vendors and internal teams—the details that matter (fabric/artwork/trims/labels) are now obvious and attached.

V2.1 — Late September 2025: AI Tech Pack Chatbot + BOM/Placement Stabilization

The headline

• Rolled out the AI Tech Pack Chatbot—ask questions about your pack and get instant answers, suggestions, and navigational help.
• Shipped a stability patch across BOM extraction and Placement Guide extraction for more consistent results.

Polish & fixes around the release

• Cropping and artwork reliability improvements.
• Safer editing (e.g., deleting costing rows sets to 0 instead of removing BOM lines).
• Tech pack type selector clarity, free-trial tuning, and continued build/error handling.

What this unlocked for users
A more conversational and dependable documentation flow—less guesswork, fewer retries, clearer outputs.

What You Can Do Today (Quick Highlights)

• Generate flats from text + images and refine with manual edits when needed.
• Paste size charts & product details—our smart measurements will parse and apply them.
• Export Simplified Tech Packs with fabric/artwork/trim/label imagery embedded.
• Ask the AI Tech Pack Chatbot anything about your pack.
• Purchase a single pack or subscribe, with Apple/Google Pay support.
• Use revisions, change logs, and sharing to collaborate.

What’s Next

• Expand the chatbot’s understanding of complex packs, grading, and vendor-specific requirements.
• Improve image extraction fidelity and add more auto-annotations.
• Make batch generation and multi-style workflows faster.
• Keep refining save reliability, imports, and export formats based on your requests.

Appendix — Commit Highlights by Release Window

This appendix maps representative commits to each release/phase so power users and partners can see how the sausage was made. (Dates are local commit timestamps.)

Foundations → Q1 2025

• 2024-12: Tech pack generator, images, Excel/PDF, Stripe baseline, share links, SEO/sitemap.
• 2025-01: PDF viewer, subscription + one-off purchase gating, revisions & change log, front/back images.
• 2025-02: Sentry, PostHog events, payment flows, editable materials/sizes, login reliability.
• 2025-03: Landing redesign, “How it works”, Excel integration, PDF layout, pricing updates.

V1 (June 2025) — AI Flat Sketch Generation

• Early June: pricing/trial polish; placement/artwork/UI stability; downloadable flats.
• July 8–18: best stab at AI flat sketches, add flat sketch generator, UI for measurement editor, examples and preview flows.

July 2025 — Manual Mode & Mobile

• Manual measurement drawing; mobile render fixes; free pages; smoother loading; instruction and input UX.

August 2025 — Refactors, Saves, One-Shot, Admin

• Data table & save refactor, “My Techpacks” page, One-Shot MVP, enhanced placement guide, separate BOM, image pipeline hardening, policies, SEO/IndexNow, affiliate & analytics.

V1.1 (First week of Sept 2025) — Smarter Prompts & Measurements

• Prompt system rebuild; context-aware measurement parsing of pasted size charts & product details; polling; one-time purchase after generation; SEO/metadata passes.

V2 (Sept 19, 2025) — Simplified Tech Packs + Image Extraction

• Simplified Techpacks format; pagination & editor alignment; fabric/artwork/trims/labels image extraction; editing and filtering improvements; saving/pagination fixes.

V2.1 (Late Sept 2025) — AI Tech Pack Chatbot + Stability

• AI tech pack chatbot; BOM extraction and Placement Guide extraction stabilization; cropping & artwork polish; safer cost edits; tech pack type selector & free-trial adjustments.