Lab · Local
The Clip Board
A weekly static coupon board that ranks the eight local stores Andrew shops at by how good that week’s deal stack really is.
- Status
- Paused · last board Aug 30, 2026
- Who uses it
- Andrew, plus anyone with the link. No sign-in.
- Built with
- One Python generator (standard library only) · static site on Render · Claude for research and verification
The verification pass
Paused · last board Aug 30, 2026Verify: confirmed live on the retailer’s side?
Left off, with the reason
- ✕Wrong pack count
- ✕Unverifiable promo code
- ✕Unconfirmed gift threshold
- ✕Unconfirmed gift threshold
- ✕Unconfirmed gift threshold
On the board Example
- Store A · $5 off $25 · ends tomorrow
- Store B · buy one, get one: vitamins EST
- Store C · $3 off with the app coupon
The problem
Weekly drugstore, beauty and grocery deals change constantly, coupon blogs disagree, and a wrong pack size or an expired offer means a wasted trip. Accuracy beats completeness.
How it works
One file per week
A JSON file holds the stores, offers, coupons and a prioritized to-do list. The newest week is live; every older one becomes an archive page.
Ranked stores
Each store gets a rank and score, a summary of the stack, a trap warning and an optional “what to pick up” grid.
Urgency done right
Anything that expires within two days is highlighted, plus “hot window” cards.
Printable lists
A PDF buying list, overall and per store.
A weekly refresh by Claude
Check the real date, read the week’s offers, fill gaps from public ads, run an adversarial verification pass, build and publish.
Where AI fits
- Claude researches and verifies each week’s data, then runs the build and publish.
Guardrails
Unconfirmed means left off
Any offer that can’t be confirmed live is rejected, and the board says what was unavailable instead of guessing.
Confidence on every item
Retailer, aggregator, or aggregator-conflict; prices not from the retailer’s own site get an EST badge.
Polite automation
Never gets past a login challenge or CAPTCHA, paces actions and stops at the first refusal.
Counts recomputed
Headline counts are recomputed at build time, never trusted from the file.
Engineering notes
A hand-written PDF writer
So the build needs nothing installed on the host.
Time zone aware
“Today” is computed in Eastern time so a server running on UTC doesn’t retire tonight’s offers early.
Verification pays off
The adversarial pass caught a wrong pack count, an unverifiable promo code and three unconfirmed gift thresholds before they reached the board.
What’s next
The weekly refresh is specified but hasn’t produced a new board since the week of August 30, 2026.