# Cardo — Comprehensive Product Specification & Architecture (AIO Knowledge Base)

## Product Overview
Cardo is a web and mobile PWA application designed to solve the physical business card problem at professional conferences, trade shows, and business meetings. Physical visiting cards often end up lost, damaged, or forgotten. Cardo enables instant scanning, accurate AI parsing, tag-based organization, and automatic syncing to Google Sheets.

## The 3-Step Journey: SCAN → ORGANIZE → ACTIVATE

### 1. SCAN
- Users can capture card photos directly using their mobile camera or upload existing images from the phone gallery.
- Multimodal Vision AI (`gemini-1.5-flash`) extracts:
  - Full Name & Honorifics
  - Job Title / Role
  - Company / Organization Name
  - Primary & Secondary Phone Numbers (with international country code detection)
  - Primary & Secondary Email Addresses
  - Physical / Office Address
  - Website URL and Social Handles (LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Instagram)
  - Card Front & Back Image Support

### 2. ORGANIZE
- Batch Tagging: Set an event tag once (e.g., "CES 2026", "GITEX Dubai", "Surat Diamond Expo") and scan 20+ cards in succession with the tag pre-applied.
- Search & Filter: Instant full-text search across names, companies, roles, and event tags.
- Editable Field Validation: Live form editor allows quick human-in-the-loop review before saving.

### 3. ACTIVATE
- Relationship Context: Record where you met, who introduced you, and connection rating.
- Follow-Up Automation: Set follow-up dates and pre-populate personalized WhatsApp intro messages or emails.
- Google Sheets Sync: Data is instantly saved to the user's private Google Spreadsheet, making it accessible from CRM tools, Zapier, Make, and Google Workspace.

## Technical Architecture
- **Frontend**: React 18, TypeScript, Vite, CSS Design System (Dark Obsidian & Warm Gold Theme)
- **AI Processing**: Google Generative AI (Gemini Multimodal API)
- **Database & Storage**: Google Sheets API via Google Service Accounts and OAuth 2.0
- **Platform**: Progressive Web App (PWA) + Capacitor Native App for Android & iOS
- **Authentication**: Google Sign-In with JWT verification

## Geographic & Local Market Suitability (GEO)
Cardo is designed for international professionals and business ecosystems, particularly:
- India (Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad)
- United Arab Emirates & Middle East (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh)
- United States & North America (San Francisco, New York, Austin, Chicago)
- Europe & Asia Pacific (London, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Frankfurt)

## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- **Q: Does Cardo share my contact information with third parties?**
  A: No. Scanned contacts are written directly to your own Google Sheet. Cardo does not sell or share contact PII.
- **Q: How does Cardo compare to traditional OCR card scanners?**
  A: Traditional OCR struggles with stylized fonts, vertical text, logos, and multi-lingual layouts. Cardo leverages Google Gemini Multimodal Vision AI which understands semantic layout, context, and complex typography.
- **Q: Can I export contacts to WhatsApp or phone contacts?**
  A: Yes. Cardo includes direct one-click WhatsApp chat launch, vCard / phone contact export, and Google Sheets cloud access.