Butter
Host a facilitated workshop interface around a modest private video room
🪦 Butter shut down after the team joined Miro in 2025. The verdict below is now a post-mortem.
A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Butter, host a facilitated workshop interface around a modest private video room. The hard boundary is workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations, plus real-time media infrastructure and reliability.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations
- global low-latency media network
- dial-in and telephony
- large webinars
- transcription, support, and compliance
Why people still pay
People paid for Butter because video products survive because real-time media quality and global reliability are infrastructure businesses, not weekend interface projects. The recurring cost bought TURN capacity, codecs, browsers, packet loss, scaling, recording, consent, abuse, monitoring, and incident response, not just the visible interface.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- public server with strong bandwidth
- domain and TLS
- TURN server
- Docker
- explicit participant consent for recording
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Project rule, data: Model rooms, signed invitations, participants, consent state, and optional recordings; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
Project rule, behavior: For video meetings and webinars, create a modest private room with signed invitations and a host-controlled start state.
Project rule, recovery: An expired invitation cannot join; a participant without recorded consent must not be included in a recording.
Implementation plan
Phase 1, architecture and data
Use Docker Compose, Jitsi Meet, a small Next.js 15 control panel, PostgreSQL, and TURN. Model rooms, signed invitations, participants, consent state, and optional recordings; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
Phase 2, implement
For video meetings and webinars, create a modest private room with signed invitations and a host-controlled start state.
Phase 3, implement
Show camera, microphone, bandwidth, and TURN diagnostics before joining.
Phase 4, review and output
Track participants and optional recording only after clear consent, then expose a download or deletion path.
Phase 5, recovery and acceptance
Verify this invariant with a saved fixture: An expired invitation cannot join; a participant without recorded consent must not be included in a recording. State the practical limit: workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations.
Build me a focused video meetings and webinars workflow for the personal core of Butter. Requirements: - Use Docker Compose, Jitsi Meet, a small Next.js 15 control panel, PostgreSQL, and TURN. Model rooms, signed invitations, participants, consent state, and optional recordings; keep stable source IDs and timestamps. - Paid product context: Host a facilitated workshop interface around a modest private video room. Build only this DIY scope: Host facilitated workshops in a modest private video room, issue signed room links, and keep recordings only when every participant is clearly informed. - For video meetings and webinars, create a modest private room with signed invitations and a host-controlled start state. - Show camera, microphone, bandwidth, and TURN diagnostics before joining. - Track participants and optional recording only after clear consent, then expose a download or deletion path. - Use a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views. Required input or access: public server with strong bandwidth; domain and TLS. - Recovery: An expired invitation cannot join; a participant without recorded consent must not be included in a recording. - Acceptance: with one labelled sample, show the input, saved intermediate state, and exported result; verify this invariant: An expired invitation cannot join; a participant without recorded consent must not be included in a recording. - Out of scope: workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations; global low-latency media network. Keep this a personal, inspectable workflow. - Include a README with setup, a sample input, required keys or permissions, data location, and the supported scope.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan
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Questions about Butter
Can you build your own Butter with AI?
A full replacement is not the recommended project. A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Butter, host a facilitated workshop interface around a modest private video room. The hard boundary is workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations, plus real-time media infrastructure and reliability.
What does the Butter build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Host facilitated workshops in a modest private video room, issue signed room links, and keep recordings only when every participant is clearly informed. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations; global low-latency media network; dial-in and telephony. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Butter prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Butter project take?
The catalogue estimate is closest consolation build: one sitting for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Butter?
workshop tools, templates, media reliability, engagement features, and integrations; global low-latency media network; dial-in and telephony; large webinars; transcription, support, and compliance. People paid for Butter because video products survive because real-time media quality and global reliability are infrastructure businesses, not weekend interface projects. The recurring cost bought TURN capacity, codecs, browsers, packet loss, scaling, recording, consent, abuse, monitoring, and incident response, not just the visible interface.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Starter plan is $14/mo per seat (monthly per member), checked 2026-07-31. Butter shut down after the team joined Miro in 2025; this is historical pricing. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Butter?
BigBlueButton: Workshops, polls, breakouts and recordings; installation is the first workshop. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.