Discovery Desktop Development Guide

A web application for e-discovery teams to manage case vaults, upload legal documents, perform OCR, and execute semantic searches.

Live site: https://discovery-desktop.casedev.app/

Architecture

src/
├── app/
│   ├── api/cases/              # Case CRUD operations
│   ├── cases/[caseId]/         # Case dashboard (upload, search, documents)
│   └── page.tsx                # Home - case listing
├── components/
│   ├── ui/                     # shadcn/ui primitives
│   ├── upload/                 # Drag-drop upload, progress tracking
│   └── search/                 # Search bar, results, export
└── lib/
    ├── db/                     # Drizzle schema, client
    ├── casedev/                # Case.dev API wrapper
    └── utils.ts                # cn(), formatters

Core Workflow

Create Case → Upload Documents → OCR Processing → Semantic Search → Export
     ↓              ↓                  ↓                ↓              ↓
  Vault API    Case.dev Upload    Automatic via     Natural       CSV with
  password-       bulk             Case.dev API     language      relevance
  protected                                         queries        scores

Tech Stack

Case.dev API Integration

All document processing uses Case.dev APIs. See references/casedev-api.md for detailed patterns.

Authentication

// lib/casedev/client.ts pattern
const CASEDEV_API_KEY = process.env.CASEDEV_API_KEY;

headers: {
  'Authorization': `Bearer ${CASEDEV_API_KEY}`,
  'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

Key Operations

Database Operations

SQLite with Drizzle ORM. See references/database-schema.md for complete schema.

Commands

npm run db:generate  # Generate migrations from schema changes
npm run db:push      # Push schema to database (dev)
npm run db:studio    # Open Drizzle Studio GUI

Core Tables

• cases: id, name, description, passwordHash, vaultId, createdAt
• documents: id, caseId, filename, status, casedevDocId, ocrText

Development

Setup

npm install
cp .env.example .env.local
# Add CASEDEV_API_KEY to .env.local
npm run db:push
npm run dev

Environment

CASEDEV_API_KEY=sk_case_...   # Required - get from app.case.dev

Build & Deploy

npm run build
npm start

Common Tasks

Adding a New API Route

// src/app/api/cases/[caseId]/newfeature/route.ts
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import { db } from '@/lib/db';

export async function POST(
  request: NextRequest,
  { params }: { params: { caseId: string } }
) {
  // Implementation
}

Extending Database Schema

1. Modify src/lib/db/schema.ts
2. Run npm run db:generate
3. Run npm run db:push

Adding Case.dev Integration

See references/casedev-api.md for endpoint patterns, error handling, and rate limits.

E-Discovery Context

See references/ediscovery-glossary.md for legal terminology.

Key concepts: Discovery, document production, privilege review, relevance scoring, ESI (electronically stored information).

Supported File Formats

Troubleshooting