base-consumer-app.json

{
  "id": "base-consumer-app",
  "name": "Base Consumer App Workflow",
  "goal": "Build a consumer-facing web3 application on Base with embedded wallet, onchain actions, and optional gasless transactions.",
  "goal_tags": ["base-app", "consumer-app", "embedded-wallet", "onchain-actions", "erc-4337", "gasless", "social-login", "wallet-infrastructure", "email-login", "new-users", "identity", "onchain-identity"],
  "ecosystems": ["base", "ethereum"],
  "scale": ["hackathon", "mvp", "production"],
  "user_types": ["vibe-coder", "advanced-builder"],
  "phases": [
    {
      "id": "wallet",
      "role": "wallet-setup",
      "required": true,
      "primary_tools": ["privy"],
      "alternative_tools": [
        {
          "tool_id": "dynamic",
          "when_to_prefer": "When the app needs to support both embedded wallet creation and connection of existing external wallets (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, WalletConnect). Dynamic handles the hybrid case in one SDK."
        },
        {
          "tool_id": "reown",
          "when_to_prefer": "When the target audience is primarily existing wallet holders. Reown connects external wallets — does not create embedded wallets for new users."
        },
        {
          "tool_id": "coinbase-smart-wallet",
          "when_to_prefer": "When building on Base and target users already have the Coinbase app — Coinbase Smart Wallet provides passkey-based gasless transactions with zero-configuration smart account abstraction. Native to Base; cannot be used for general EVM chains."
        }
      ],
      "skill_refs": [],
      "phase_notes": "Privy is the default for consumer apps that need to onboard users who don't have a wallet yet. The key decision here is embedded vs. external — Privy excels at embedded (email/social login → wallet creation). If your users already have wallets and you only need connection, Reown is simpler. If you need both paths, use Dynamic."
    },
    {
      "id": "ui-components",
      "role": "ui",
      "required": false,
      "primary_tools": ["onchainkit"],
      "alternative_tools": [
        {
          "tool_id": "wagmi",
          "when_to_prefer": "When you need lower-level hooks without opinionated UI components. OnchainKit wraps wagmi — use wagmi directly for custom UI designs."
        }
      ],
      "skill_refs": [],
      "phase_notes": "OnchainKit accelerates Base app development with pre-built transaction, swap, and identity components. If you want the acceleration without OnchainKit's visual opinions, use wagmi directly. For hackathons, OnchainKit's ready-made components are the fastest path."
    },
    {
      "id": "chain",
      "role": "data-indexing",
      "required": true,
      "primary_tools": ["alchemy-rpc"],
      "alternative_tools": [
        {
          "tool_id": "quicknode",
          "when_to_prefer": "If you need multi-chain RPC beyond Base/Ethereum or are already on the QuickNode stack."
        }
      ],
      "skill_refs": [],
      "phase_notes": "Alchemy is the reference RPC for Base — it's what Coinbase documentation recommends and what OnchainKit is optimized for. Never use public RPCs in production. Alchemy free tier is sufficient for development and early MVP."
    },
    {
      "id": "gasless-actions",
      "role": "payment",
      "required": false,
      "primary_tools": ["pimlico"],
      "alternative_tools": [
        {
          "tool_id": "alchemy-account-kit",
          "when_to_prefer": "When already fully in the Alchemy stack and AA is required alongside chain data in the same provider relationship."
        },
        {
          "tool_id": "zerodev",
          "when_to_prefer": "When session keys or advanced smart account programmability is needed beyond standard gas sponsorship."
        }
      ],
      "skill_refs": [],
      "phase_notes": "Gasless actions dramatically improve conversion for consumer apps — users should never encounter a 'you need ETH' barrier in a well-designed consumer flow. Pimlico's gas policy API makes per-action sponsorship rules easy. Add this phase when any user action requires a transaction.",
      "scale_overrides": {
        "hackathon": "Skip unless gasless is a core demo requirement. Standard transaction flow is sufficient for demos.",
        "production": "Required for any consumer app with meaningful transaction volume. Model gas sponsorship costs and set per-user spending limits before launch."
      }
    }
  ],
  "prerequisite_workflows": [],
  "prerequisite_skills": [],
  "trust_state": "production-grade",
  "production_notes": [
    "Privy + OnchainKit + Alchemy is the dominant Base consumer app stack. The majority of successful Base consumer apps ship with this exact pattern.",
    "Wallet onboarding UX is the highest-leverage conversion optimization in consumer crypto apps — Privy's social/email login is the current best practice.",
    "Gas sponsorship economics must be modeled before production launch. Track per-action cost against user LTV from day one.",
    "Alchemy compute unit budget matters at scale — plan tier before launch, not after hitting limits.",
    "Privy handles the wallet/auth layer. Do not build your own wallet management on top of raw private keys."
  ],
  "tradeoffs": [
    "Privy provides excellent onboarding UX but locks into their wallet infrastructure — extracting users later is complex.",
    "OnchainKit's visual components accelerate development but limit design flexibility. Trade-off: speed vs. design control.",
    "Pimlico adds gas sponsorship complexity. The UX improvement is significant, but requires policy configuration to avoid budget overruns.",
    "Alchemy + Pimlico creates two provider relationships for a single chain — manageable but adds configuration surface area."
  ],
  "anti_patterns": [
    "Using public RPCs in production — Alchemy free tier is nearly free and prevents rate limit failures.",
    "Skipping embedded wallet entirely and requiring MetaMask/Coinbase Wallet — user drop-off at the wallet step kills consumer apps.",
    "Building without gas sponsorship for consumer-facing transaction flows — users should not need ETH.",
    "Using Privy's react-auth SDK for server-side autonomous operations — Privy is user-facing. Use Turnkey for server-side signing.",
    "Hardcoding a specific wallet address without Privy policy controls — no spending limits means no blast radius containment."
  ],
  "constraint_modifiers": [
    {
      "constraint": "no_existing_wallet",
      "modification": "Privy is the primary recommendation — this workflow is optimized for onboarding users with no existing wallet via email, social login, or passkeys.",
      "affects_phase": "wallet"
    },
    {
      "constraint": "hybrid_wallet",
      "modification": "Use Dynamic instead of Privy for the wallet phase. Dynamic handles both embedded wallet creation for new users AND external wallet connection (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet) in a single SDK.",
      "affects_phase": "wallet"
    },
    {
      "constraint": "has_existing_wallet",
      "modification": "Replace Privy with Reown (external wallet connection only) or upgrade to Dynamic (hybrid embedded + external).",
      "affects_phase": "wallet"
    },
    {
      "constraint": "gasless_required",
      "modification": "Promote gasless-actions phase to required. Configure Pimlico gas policy before any user-facing transaction flow.",
      "affects_phase": "gasless-actions"
    },
    {
      "constraint": "hackathon_timeline",
      "modification": "Skip gasless-actions phase. Use Privy + OnchainKit + Alchemy as the minimal viable stack.",
      "affects_phase": "gasless-actions"
    },
    {
      "constraint": "ai_reasoning_required",
      "modification": "Add Vercel AI SDK as an ai-reasoning phase. Pair with Trigger.dev if durable background execution is needed.",
      "affects_phase": "ai-reasoning"
    },
    {
      "constraint": "social_features_required",
      "modification": "OnchainKit handles Basenames identity resolution for Base-native social features. Neynar is required only if integrating Farcaster social data — if Farcaster is the primary social network, consider the farcaster-consumer-onboarding or farcaster-social-ai-agent workflows instead.",
      "affects_phase": "ui-components"
    }
  ],
  "retrieval_tags": ["base-app", "consumer-onboarding", "embedded-wallet", "gasless", "onchainkit", "privy", "alchemy", "erc-4337"],
  "source": {
    "derived_from": "corpus-expansion-strategy-v1 + WORKFLOWS.md + ToolRecord analysis",
    "last_verified": "2026-05-13"
  },
  "updated_at": "2026-05-13"
}