Project summary
Modestly is a web-based platform designed to help educators, schools, and parents share educational video content in a safe, branded, and distraction-free environment — eliminating YouTube recommendations, comments, autoplay, and ads.
It consists of two complementary products:
- mdst-central — a fully featured multi-tenant platform for schools and organizations, with user role management, content control, and analytics.
- mdst-individual — a simplified solution for personal users, allowing them to generate branded, clutter-free video pages without creating an organization.
Problem it Solves
- YouTube isn’t built for classrooms — ads, comment sections, and related videos distract students.
- No access control on shared links — making it hard to limit who sees what.
- Schools and educators lack control over video experiences they send to students.
Modestly addresses these with a secure, customizable platform that allows:
- Safe, branded video links
- Access control with blacklist/whitelist logic
- Admin dashboards and organizational management
- Rich analytics on views and usage
Responsibilities
As part of the development team, I worked on both mdst-central and mdst-individual, focusing on:
- Frontend polishing and bug fixes to stabilize the production-ready MVP
- Legacy code refactoring to streamline maintenance and scalability
- Performance optimization by reducing unnecessary requests and speeding up load times
- Implementation of blacklist and CAPTCHA logic for access control and abuse prevention
- Unifying UI components and layout to ensure consistency across the entire platform
- Setting up feature flag logic and secure guard mechanisms to manage rollout and access
Key Features Delivered
Access Control & Roles
- Organization admins can invite users, assign roles, and manage access
- Guard logic enforces tenant-level permissions and blacklists
- Google OAuth login and Cloudflare CAPTCHA for secure onboarding
Branded Video Sharing
- Each link has a branded landing page with school logo, theme, and custom legal text
- Videos are embedded without comments, recommendations, or autoplay
- Links can be password-protected and limited by time or usage
Video Library & Management
- Users can save and categorize video content into a searchable resource library
- Filtering, tagging, and metadata tools simplify content organization
Analytics & Dashboards
- Master admin dashboard to oversee platform-wide usage
- Tenant-level insights on video views, engagement, user activity, and more
- Mixpanel used for granular event tracking and insight generation
Admin Panel & System Tools
- Feature flags system allows selective rollout of platform features
- Blacklist manager to restrict users or video links
- Centralized user and tenant management interface
Technical Challenges & Solutions
Multi-Tenant Architecture
- Implemented clear separation between master and tenant scopes
- Context-aware routing and permissions
- Synced Supabase types and schemas between frontend and backend to avoid drift
Secure Video Sharing
- Built CAPTCHA logic and rate limiting for protection
- Password-based link control and user-level access restriction
Performance Optimization
- Used React Query for efficient caching and background updates
- Applied lazy loading and modular data fetching for speed improvements
- Reduced frontend/API noise and optimized initial load
Architecture Evolution
- Refactored boilerplate into a modular, scalable SaaS structure
- Introduced clean domain modeling and layered type definitions for Supabase entities
- Synchronized DB types with frontend models to prevent runtime bugs
Tech Stack
- React
- Tailwind CSS
- shadcn/ui
- Supabase (PostgreSQL + Edge Functions)
- React Query
- Google OAuth 2.0
- Cloudflare CAPTCHA
- Mixpanel
- Vite
- TypeScript
Results
- Delivered a production-ready SaaS product for both organizational and individual users
- Built a flexible multi-tenant system with branded video experiences
- Provided strong access control, secure link sharing, and real-time analytics
- Created a scalable foundation with optimized performance and clean architecture
- Enabled schools and educators to control their digital classroom environment with confidence
