System Requirements Document for copper-startup

1. Introduction

copper-startup is a custom website for an IT startup. Its purpose is to represent the startup and its offering to visitors, help prospective clients understand whether the offering fits their needs, provide a path to contact the startup, and allow the startup owner to maintain the public website content.

The current audience is limited to:

• Prospective Clients who visit the public website to assess the IT startup and initiate contact.
• Startup Owner / Founder who enrolls, verifies their identity on return, and publishes or updates the startup’s public content.

2. System Overview

The system is an application-owned, custom-UI website with public and protected areas.

Public visitors can access the Landing and Contact pages without authentication. The Startup Owner / Founder can create an application account through Sign Up, return through Login, and access the role-restricted Content Manager to maintain published website content.

The website must:

• Represent the IT startup and its offering to visitors.
• Explain what the startup is, who it serves, and what it offers.
• Enable interested prospective clients to reach the startup and begin an engagement.
• Support self-service enrollment for the Startup Owner / Founder before publishing content.
• Require returning identity verification before the Startup Owner / Founder edits published content.
• Allow the Startup Owner / Founder to publish and update service and company content.

2a. Product Interpretation and Delivery Boundary

The current product is a first-party IT startup website, not a third-party-hosted profile or an external-only contact experience.

The public experience consists of:

• Landing, which introduces the IT startup and its offering.
• Contact, which enables a prospective client to send an inquiry to the startup.

The protected experience consists of:

• Sign Up, where the Startup Owner / Founder establishes application identity.
• Login, where the Startup Owner / Founder verifies identity on return.
• Content Manager, where the verified Startup Owner / Founder manages the startup’s public service and company content.

The current scope does not establish additional public pages, client accounts, client portals, payment, scheduling, analytics dashboards, recruiting, blog publishing, social feeds, multi-user editorial workflows, or integrations with external contact-management systems.

2c. Page Content and Component Coverage

Landing

• Information and state

  • Presents the IT startup as a credible public business.
  • Explains what the startup is, who it serves, and what it offers.
  • Displays the currently published service and company content.
  • Supports an anonymous public-viewing state.

• Primary actions

  • Navigate to Contact to begin reaching the startup.
  • Navigate to Login or Sign Up when the Startup Owner / Founder needs to manage content.

• Supporting actions

  • Review the published startup and service information.
  • Return to the public entry point from public navigation.

• Domain entities

  • Startup public profile.
  • Service content.
  • Company content.
  • Published content state.

• Component responsibilities

  • Public header and navigation.
  • Introductory startup presentation.
  • Service and company-content display areas.
  • Contact call-to-action.
  • Owner access links.

• Loading, empty, success, error, and recovery states

  • Loading: show a non-blocking loading state while published content is retrieved.
  • Empty: show a restrained public fallback when publishable service or company content is unavailable; do not expose draft content.
  • Success: display the latest successfully published content.
  • Error: show a clear message if public content cannot be loaded.
  • Recovery: allow the visitor to retry loading the page or return later.

Login

• Information and state

  • Provides anonymous access for the returning Startup Owner / Founder.
  • Accepts the identity-verification information required by the application.
  • Establishes a verified session only after successful verification.

• Primary actions

  • Submit identity-verification information.
  • Continue to Content Manager after successful verification.

• Supporting actions

  • Navigate to Sign Up if the owner has not yet enrolled.
  • Return to Landing without becoming authenticated.

• Domain entities

  • Startup Owner / Founder identity.
  • Authentication session.
  • Verification result.

• Component responsibilities

  • Login form.
  • Verification-status feedback.
  • Link to Sign Up.
  • Safe redirect to Content Manager after successful login.

• Loading, empty, success, error, and recovery states

  • Loading: indicate that verification is in progress after submission.
  • Empty: require the minimum identity-verification inputs before submitting.
  • Success: establish a verified session and continue to Content Manager.
  • Error: explain that verification did not succeed without revealing sensitive authentication details.
  • Recovery: permit correction and resubmission of the verification information.

Sign Up

• Information and state

  • Provides anonymous, self-service enrollment for the Startup Owner / Founder.
  • Creates application identity before the owner can publish content.
  • Makes clear that Content Manager remains unavailable until enrollment succeeds.

• Primary actions

  • Submit enrollment information.
  • Continue to Login or the protected publishing workflow after successful enrollment and verification.

• Supporting actions

  • Navigate to Login when the owner already has an account.
  • Return to Landing without enrolling.

• Domain entities

  • Startup Owner / Founder identity.
  • Enrollment record.
  • Enrollment result.

• Component responsibilities

  • Sign-up form.
  • Input validation.
  • Enrollment-status feedback.
  • Link to Login.

• Loading, empty, success, error, and recovery states

  • Loading: indicate enrollment processing after submission.
  • Empty: require the minimum enrollment inputs before account creation.
  • Success: confirm that owner identity has been established and provide the appropriate continuation to verification or protected content management.
  • Error: explain that enrollment could not be completed.
  • Recovery: permit correction and resubmission without creating duplicate owner identity.

Contact

• Information and state

  • Gives a Prospective Client a public path to reach the IT startup.
  • Collects an inquiry from a visitor who wants to start an engagement.
  • Shows whether an inquiry submission has succeeded or failed.

• Primary actions

  • Enter and submit a contact inquiry to the IT startup.

• Supporting actions

  • Return to Landing to review the startup’s offering before or after contacting it.

• Domain entities

  • Prospective Client inquiry.
  • Inquiry submission status.
  • Startup contact destination.

• Component responsibilities

  • Contact inquiry form.
  • Required-input validation.
  • Submission confirmation.
  • Submission-error feedback.

• Loading, empty, success, error, and recovery states

  • Loading: show submission progress after the prospective client sends the inquiry.
  • Empty: require the contact information and message needed to send an inquiry; exact fields are not specified by the source.
  • Success: confirm that the inquiry was sent to the startup.
  • Error: explain that the inquiry was not sent.
  • Recovery: preserve recoverable visitor input where feasible and allow resubmission.

Content Manager

• Information and state

  • Is accessible only to the verified Startup Owner / Founder.
  • Displays the owner’s current service and company content in editable form.
  • Distinguishes saved editing state from currently published public content.
  • Displays publishing and update outcomes.

• Primary actions

  • Create, edit, and update service content.
  • Create, edit, and update company content.
  • Publish the current public content.

• Supporting actions

  • Review the current published representation of the startup.
  • Return to Landing to view the public website after publication.
  • End the authenticated session when appropriate.

• Domain entities

  • Startup Owner / Founder identity.
  • Service content.
  • Company content.
  • Published content state.
  • Content update result.

• Component responsibilities

  • Protected access guard.
  • Service-content editing area.
  • Company-content editing area.
  • Publish control.
  • Save, publishing, success, and error feedback.
  • Link to the public Landing page.

• Loading, empty, success, error, and recovery states

  • Loading: retrieve existing owner-managed content and publication status.
  • Empty: present editable empty content areas when no content has yet been created.
  • Success: confirm saved or published updates and make published content available on Landing.
  • Error: explain when content cannot be loaded, saved, or published.
  • Recovery: preserve unsaved recoverable edits where feasible, permit retry, and prevent failed publication from replacing the last successfully published public content.
  • Unauthorized: deny access when there is no verified owner session and direct the user to Login.

3. Functional Requirements

FR-01 — Represent the IT startup publicly

As a Prospective Client, I should be able to view a public website that represents the IT startup and its offering so that I can understand what the startup is and assess whether it fits my needs.

• Provenance: explicit
• Actor: Prospective Client
• Trigger/input: The visitor opens the Landing page.
• Access state: Anonymous public access; no authentication is required.
• Required behavior:
  • The system shall provide a public Landing page for the IT startup.
  • The Landing page shall explain what the IT startup is, who it serves, and what it offers.
  • The Landing page shall display the currently published service and company content.
• Observable result: The prospective client can review the startup’s public representation and offering.
• Failure and recovery: If published content cannot be loaded, the system shall communicate the failure and allow the visitor to retry or return later.
• Continuation: The visitor may proceed to Contact to reach the startup.
• Acceptance:
  • A visitor can access Landing without an account.
  • Landing communicates the startup’s identity and offering using published content.
  • Draft or unpublished owner content is not exposed publicly.

FR-02 — Contact the IT startup

As a Prospective Client, I should be able to send a contact inquiry to the IT startup so that I can start an engagement.

• Provenance: required_inference
• Actor: Prospective Client
• Indispensable participant: Startup Owner / Founder, as the party represented by the startup and the intended recipient of the contact inquiry.
• Trigger/input: The visitor chooses the Contact path and provides the information needed for an inquiry.
• Access state: Anonymous public access; no authentication is required.
• Required behavior:
  • The system shall provide a Contact page.
  • The Contact page shall accept a prospective client’s inquiry for the IT startup.
  • The system shall validate required inquiry information before submission.
  • The system shall communicate the submission outcome to the prospective client.
  • The system shall make the submitted inquiry available to the startup as the contact recipient.
• Observable result: The prospective client receives confirmation that the inquiry was sent, and the startup has the inquiry as an engagement-starting contact.
• Failure and recovery: If submission fails, the system shall communicate that the inquiry was not sent and allow the visitor to correct recoverable input and resubmit.
• Continuation: The prospective client may return to Landing; the startup may act on the received inquiry outside the scope of this website.
• Acceptance:
  • An anonymous prospective client can reach Contact from Landing.
  • A valid inquiry produces a visible successful-submission confirmation.
  • An invalid or failed submission does not present itself as successful.

FR-03 — Enroll before publishing content

As a Startup Owner / Founder, I should be able to complete self-service enrollment before publishing content so that my public website content is associated with the correct startup owner.

• Provenance: required_inference
• Actor: Startup Owner / Founder
• Trigger/input: A first-time owner opens Sign Up and submits the application’s required enrollment information.
• Access state: Anonymous access to Sign Up.
• Required behavior:
  • The system shall provide a Sign Up page for self-service owner enrollment.
  • The system shall establish application-owned identity for the enrolled Startup Owner / Founder.
  • The system shall not allow Content Manager access solely from visiting Sign Up; protected access requires successful identity establishment and verification.
• Observable result: The owner receives an enrollment outcome and can continue to identity verification or protected content management as appropriate.
• Failure and recovery: If enrollment fails or required information is missing, the system shall identify the issue and allow correction and resubmission.
• Continuation: A successfully enrolled owner proceeds to Login or the verified protected workflow; an existing owner may proceed to Login.
• Acceptance:
  • Sign Up is reachable without authentication.
  • A first-time owner can submit enrollment information.
  • Failed enrollment does not create a misleading successful state.
  • Content Manager remains restricted to the verified Startup Owner / Founder.

FR-04 — Verify identity on return

As a Startup Owner / Founder, I should be able to verify my identity when I return so that I can safely edit published content.

• Provenance: required_inference
• Actor: Startup Owner / Founder
• Trigger/input: A returning owner opens Login and submits identity-verification information.
• Access state: Anonymous access to Login; verified session required for Content Manager.
• Required behavior:
  • The system shall provide a Login page for returning owner verification.
  • The system shall establish a verified owner session only after successful verification.
  • The system shall direct a successfully verified Startup Owner / Founder to Content Manager.
• Observable result: The verified owner gains access to the protected content-management workspace.
• Failure and recovery: If verification fails, the system shall communicate the failure without exposing sensitive authentication details and allow another attempt.
• Continuation: After successful verification, the owner can manage and publish public content in Content Manager.
• Acceptance:
  • Login is accessible without authentication.
  • An unsuccessful verification attempt does not grant Content Manager access.
  • A successful verification attempt grants access to Content Manager.

FR-05 — Publish and update startup content

As a Startup Owner / Founder, I should be able to publish and update service and company content so that the live website credibly represents my IT startup.

• Provenance: required_inference
• Actor: Startup Owner / Founder
• Affected participant: Prospective Client, who sees the resulting published website content on Landing.
• Trigger/input: A verified owner opens Content Manager and creates or changes service or company content.
• Access state: Role-restricted; only the verified Startup Owner / Founder may access Content Manager.
• Required behavior:
  • The system shall provide a protected Content Manager page.
  • The system shall allow the verified owner to create and update service content.
  • The system shall allow the verified owner to create and update company content.
  • The system shall provide a publish action for the owner-managed content.
  • The system shall display the latest successfully published content on Landing.
  • The system shall preserve the last successfully published public content if a later save or publication attempt fails.
• Observable result: The owner receives a save or publish outcome, and successfully published content becomes visible to prospective clients on Landing.
• Failure and recovery: If loading, saving, or publishing fails, the system shall identify the failure, retain recoverable edits where feasible, and allow retry without replacing the last successful public content.
• Continuation: The owner may review the public result on Landing and return to Content Manager for later updates.
• Acceptance:
  • An unauthenticated user cannot access Content Manager.
  • A verified Startup Owner / Founder can edit service and company content.
  • Successful publication updates the public Landing content.
  • A failed publication does not replace already published public content.

4. User Personas

Startup Owner / Founder

• Product context: The Startup Owner / Founder is the person building and maintaining the IT startup’s public presence.
• Primary goal: Maintain a live, credible website that represents the IT startup.
• Distinct responsibilities:
  • Complete self-service enrollment before publishing content.
  • Verify identity on return.
  • Create, update, and publish service and company content.
  • Review the resulting public representation on Landing.
• Relevant inputs and decisions:
  • Enrollment information for application-owned identity.
  • Identity-verification information on return.
  • Decisions about the service and company content to publish.
  • Decision to publish updated content to the public website.
• Interactions with other accepted participants: The owner’s publishing actions determine the information Prospective Clients see on Landing. The owner is also the recipient represented by the Contact path when prospective clients start an engagement.
• Observable success: The startup has live published content that accurately and credibly represents its services and company information, and the owner can securely return to update it.
• Persona provenance: required_inference; this role is necessary because the requester needs to establish and maintain their IT startup’s public presence.

Prospective Client

• Product context: The Prospective Client is an anonymous visitor evaluating the IT startup’s offering.
• Primary goal: Understand whether the startup fits their needs and reach the startup to begin an engagement.
• Distinct responsibilities:
  • Browse the Landing page’s published startup, service, and company information.
  • Decide whether to initiate contact.
  • Submit an inquiry through Contact.
• Relevant inputs and decisions:
  • Assessment of the startup’s offering and fit.
  • Contact inquiry information and message.
• Interactions with other accepted participants: The prospective client consumes content published by the Startup Owner / Founder and sends an inquiry to the startup represented by that owner.
• Observable success: The prospective client can assess the offering and receives confirmation that their contact inquiry was sent.
• Persona provenance: required_inference; this role is necessary because visitors must understand the startup’s offering and have a path to reach it.

5. Core User Flows

Flow 1 — Prospective Client assesses the IT startup

1. The Prospective Client opens Landing anonymously.
2. Landing retrieves and displays the currently published startup, service, and company content.
3. The Prospective Client reviews what the IT startup is, who it serves, and what it offers.
4. The Prospective Client decides whether the offering fits their needs.
5. If the visitor wants to start an engagement, they select the Contact path and continue to Contact.
6. If Landing content cannot be retrieved, Landing presents an error state and the visitor can retry or return later.

Flow 2 — Prospective Client sends an inquiry

1. The Prospective Client opens Contact anonymously from Landing or another public navigation path.
2. The Prospective Client enters the information needed to contact the IT startup and writes an inquiry.
3. The Prospective Client submits the inquiry.
4. Contact validates the required input.
5. The system sends the valid inquiry to the startup’s contact destination.
6. The Prospective Client sees confirmation that the inquiry was sent.
7. The Startup Owner / Founder has the inquiry available as the startup’s received contact, enabling follow-up outside this website’s current scope.
8. If validation or submission fails, Contact explains the failure, retains recoverable input where feasible, and allows the Prospective Client to correct and resubmit.

Flow 3 — Startup Owner / Founder enrolls

1. The Startup Owner / Founder opens Sign Up anonymously.
2. The owner enters the information required to establish application-owned identity.
3. The owner submits the enrollment request.
4. Sign Up validates the submitted information and creates an enrollment record when valid.
5. The owner sees a successful enrollment outcome.
6. The owner continues to Login or the verified protected workflow as appropriate.
7. If enrollment fails, Sign Up explains the issue and allows the owner to correct and resubmit without creating a duplicate identity.

Flow 4 — Startup Owner / Founder returns and verifies identity

1. The Startup Owner / Founder opens Login anonymously.
2. The owner enters identity-verification information.
3. The owner submits the verification request.
4. Login verifies the owner’s identity.
5. On success, the system creates a verified session and directs the owner to Content Manager.
6. On failure, Login explains that verification did not succeed, does not grant protected access, and allows another attempt.
7. An owner who has not enrolled may continue to Sign Up.

Flow 5 — Startup Owner / Founder publishes or updates public content

1. The verified Startup Owner / Founder opens Content Manager.
2. Content Manager retrieves the current service content, company content, and publication state.
3. The owner creates or updates service content and/or company content.
4. The owner saves changes and chooses to publish the content.
5. Content Manager confirms successful saving or publishing.
6. The published content becomes the public content displayed on Landing.
7. The Startup Owner / Founder may open Landing to review the public result.
8. A Prospective Client subsequently opening Landing sees the latest successfully published content.
9. If loading, saving, or publishing fails, Content Manager identifies the failure, preserves recoverable edits where feasible, allows retry, and retains the last successfully published Landing content.

6. Visuals Colors and Theme

No explicit brand palette, typography, layout, or visual reference was supplied. The following are presentation defaults only and do not introduce product behavior.

• Theme: [Default — not specified by user] Warm technical editorial style for an IT startup, avoiding generic blue-on-white SaaS styling.

• Colour mode: [Default — not specified by user] Light-first interface with deep copper accents.

• Background: #F7F2EC — warm mineral off-white.

• Primary surface: #FFFDFC — elevated readable content surface.

• Secondary surface: #E9DED2 — subtle section and form grouping surface.

• Primary text: #241B17 — near-black warm brown.

• Secondary text: #66574E — muted supporting text.

• Primary accent: #B75C32 — copper action and emphasis colour.

• Accent dark: #7D351B — hover, active, and high-emphasis copper.

• Accent soft: #EEC9AF — low-emphasis callout and decorative field.

• Success: #2E6A4B.

• Error: #A53D32.

• Border: #D9CABE.

• Heading font: [Default — not specified by user] DM Serif Display, Georgia, serif.

• Body font: [Default — not specified by user] Inter, Arial, sans-serif.

• Type scale: [Default — not specified by user]

  • Display: 56px desktop / 40px mobile.
  • H1: 44px desktop / 34px mobile.
  • H2: 32px desktop / 28px mobile.
  • H3: 22px.
  • Body: 16px.
  • Supporting text: 14px.

• Shape language: [Default — not specified by user] Modestly rounded 10px surfaces, 6px controls, fine 1px warm borders, and measured use of copper rules.

• Spacing rhythm: [Default — not specified by user] 4px base unit with 16px, 24px, 40px, 64px, and 96px section intervals.

• Imagery style: [Default — not specified by user] Abstract close-cropped technology textures, warm material detail, and restrained architectural compositions. Avoid stock imagery that claims unsupported team, client, project, or technology facts.

• Tone: [Default — not specified by user] Clear, credible, concise, and technically confident.

7. Signature Design Concept

The Landing page should use a Copper Signal composition: a warm off-white editorial field interrupted by a single copper “signal path” that begins beside the startup introduction, passes through the service and company-content areas, and resolves at the Contact call-to-action.

The signal path is a visual connective device only. It recomposes existing Landing content to communicate a progression from understanding the startup’s offering to beginning an engagement. It must not imply unsupported service categories, client work, technical certifications, or additional product features.

8. Interaction Model & Motion Direction

Interaction Model: Animated

Motion Tempo: restrained

Hero Dimensionality: layered_2d

Landing Hero Motion Brief

• Focal subject: The IT startup’s public introduction and the Copper Signal visual path.
• Input → transformation → outcome thesis: A visitor arrives at Landing, reads the startup’s published offering, and follows the visual path toward Contact as the next accepted action for starting an engagement.
• Motion vocabulary: Restrained opacity reveals, short vertical settling transitions, and a subtle progressive draw of the copper signal path on initial page entry. Controls use brief hover and focus feedback only.
• Composed first frame: The startup introduction, published service and company information, and Contact call-to-action are readable immediately. The signal path is present in its initial static state without blocking content comprehension.
• Reduced-motion state: Disable path drawing and movement. Display all Landing content and the complete signal path immediately with no animated transitions.

9. Non-Functional Requirements

NFR-01 — Public availability

• Requirement: Landing and Contact shall be available without authentication.
• Provenance: required_inference.
• Rationale: Prospective Clients must be able to evaluate the startup and initiate contact without an account.

NFR-02 — Protected content-management access

• Requirement: Content Manager shall require a verified application-owned identity for the Startup Owner / Founder.
• Provenance: required_inference.
• Rationale: Published content must remain associated with and editable by the correct startup owner.

NFR-03 — Role-restricted authorization

• Requirement: Content Manager shall enforce role-restricted access for the Startup Owner / Founder.
• Provenance: required_inference.
• Rationale: The supplied access contract identifies Content Manager as role-restricted. No additional role hierarchy or differentiated permission model is in scope.

NFR-04 — Publication integrity

• Requirement: A failed save or publishing attempt shall not replace the last successfully published public content.
• Provenance: required_inference.
• Rationale: Prospective Clients need a stable public representation of the IT startup while the owner recovers from a content-management failure.

NFR-05 — Accessible presentation

• Requirement: Public and protected interfaces shall provide readable text, keyboard-operable controls, visible focus states, and non-colour-only error and success feedback.
• Provenance: basic_default.
• Rationale: These are minimum usability constraints for the accepted public and owner workflows.

NFR-06 — Responsive website delivery

• Requirement: The website shall present Landing, Contact, Login, Sign Up, and Content Manager in a usable responsive layout across common desktop and mobile browser viewports.
• Provenance: basic_default.
• Rationale: The product is a website intended for public visitors and a returning startup owner.

10. Tech Stack

No source-specified technology stack was supplied. The following is a minimal implementation recommendation.

• Frontend: [Default — not specified by user] React for the custom website UI.
• Backend: [Default — not specified by user] Python with FastAPI for authentication, contact inquiry handling, and content publishing APIs.
• Storage: [Default — not specified by user] Relational database storage for owner identity, authentication/session records, contact inquiries, service content, company content, and publication state.
• Deployment packaging: [Default — not specified by user] Docker and docker-compose for consistent local development and service orchestration.
• Kubernetes: Not required by the current scope; no deployment requirement establishes a need for Kubernetes.

11. Ass