For Backend Engineers

For backend engineers who design systems at the whiteboard.

BoardSnap is an iOS app that turns a whiteboard photo into a structured summary and action plan in ten seconds. For backend engineers, that means API design sessions, schema sketches, and distributed system diagrams produce durable artifacts instead of disappearing when the team leaves the room.

Download on the App Store Free to start. Pro from $9.99/mo or $69.99/yr.

What hurts today

API design sessions produce a clear endpoint contract on the board that gets partially remembered and partially re-invented when the code is written
Database schema sketches — tables, relationships, indexes — drawn in a session get re-designed in an ERD tool that diverges from the original decisions
Distributed system diagrams capturing service boundaries and communication patterns disappear between the design session and the implementation
On-call incident analysis on a whiteboard produces a timeline and root-cause diagram that never makes it into the post-mortem doc
Migration planning sessions — big-bang vs blue-green, what to migrate first — generate clear decisions at the board that are fuzzy by the time tickets get written
Code review discussions that move to the whiteboard for complex logic don't get documented alongside the PR

How BoardSnap helps

Snap an API design session and get a structured endpoint description — resource names, methods, key request/response patterns — ready to paste into your OpenAPI spec or API doc
Database schema sketches produce a written description of tables, relationships, and design decisions that serves as the source for your migration scripts and schema docs
Distributed system diagrams produce a service-by-service description of responsibilities, communication patterns, and data flows — the first draft of your architecture doc
Incident timeline boards produce a structured post-mortem draft — timeline, contributing factors, and action items separated into distinct sections
Brand-aware AI writes summaries using your team's actual service names, your tech stack vocabulary, and your internal naming conventions
Offline queue handles server rooms and on-call situations where you're working through a problem somewhere without reliable signal

A day with BoardSnap

API design session
Sketch the resource model, endpoints, and key flows on the board. Snap. BoardSnap produces a structured endpoint description — method, path, purpose, and open design questions flagged as action items for the API spec.
Schema design
Draw tables, columns, foreign keys, and index strategy on the board. Snap. The summary describes each table's purpose and relationships — the written rationale that your schema migration doesn't include by default.
Service architecture
Map the service boundaries, the communication protocols, and the data ownership on the board. Snap. BoardSnap produces a service-by-service description that serves as the first draft of the architecture doc or RFC.
Incident analysis
Draw the incident timeline, the blast radius, and the contributing factors. Snap. BoardSnap produces a structured incident summary — timeline, root causes, and a prioritized mitigation list with auto-generated subtasks.
Migration planning
Map the migration strategy, phasing, and rollback plan on the board. Snap. The written summary captures the decisions and the reasoning — the kind of context that saves hours during the actual migration.

Features that matter for backend engineers

Diagram-aware AI

BoardSnap AI reads ERD-style diagrams, service maps, and API flow diagrams. It produces structured written descriptions of the data model and system relationships — not just a transcription of the labels.

Brand-aware AI

Paste your engineering handbook, your service catalog, or your API documentation URL. BoardSnap AI learns your service names, your data model vocabulary, and your team's conventions — summaries reference your actual system.

Pinned context

Pin your architecture overview or your current RFC. Every board chat already knows the system context — ask follow-up questions like 'what are the failure modes we identified?' and get grounded answers.

Offline queue

Incident response happens in server rooms, on-call at home, and in all the wrong places for reliable WiFi. BoardSnap queues the capture on-device and processes it when signal returns.

Tri-state action items

API endpoints to spec, schema changes to write, services to build. Open / in-progress / done with auto-generated subtasks — implementation steps broken down from high-level decisions.

Frequently asked

Can BoardSnap read a database ERD-style diagram accurately?

Yes. BoardSnap AI reads entity-relationship style diagrams — table boxes, relationship lines, cardinality annotations, and column lists. It produces a written description of the schema structure and the relationships between entities.

How does it handle an incident timeline drawn on a whiteboard?

Snap the timeline board. BoardSnap reads the temporal sequence, the annotations at each point, and the contributing-factor annotations. The output is a structured incident summary — timeline, root causes, and action items — ready for your post-mortem doc.

Can I use BoardSnap to document API contracts from a design session?

Yes. Snap the board after your API design session. BoardSnap produces a structured description of the endpoint design — resources, methods, key parameters, and open questions — that serves as source material for your OpenAPI spec or API doc.

Does it work for service-to-service communication diagrams?

Yes — service boxes, communication arrows, synchronous vs asynchronous patterns, and data ownership boundaries all read well. The richer your annotations on the diagram, the more detailed the output description.

What's the best way to use BoardSnap alongside RFCs or ADRs?

Run your design session at the whiteboard, snap the board, and use the BoardSnap summary as the first draft of the RFC or ADR. The structured output maps naturally to RFC sections — context, decision, alternatives, consequences.

Built for backend engineers who ship.

Snap a whiteboard. Ship the action plan. In ten seconds.

Download on the App Store

Free · 1 project, 30 boards Pro $9.99/mo · everything unlimited Pro $69.99/yr · save 42%