CW-031 · A public demo instance

Priority P2 · Area project · Estimate M · Phase 3

Evaluating Cwork currently means cloning it, writing an .env, running compose, migrating and seeding. Most people will not, and the assistant — the thing that distinguishes this from other open-source HR systems — is off by default, so nobody evaluating it ever sees the feature.

This is the single largest thing that would help anyone evaluate the project. It sits in phase 3 only because of the blocker below.

Blocked on a decision

Who pays for the demo's LLM usage. Asking visitors for their own API key is not an option — it trains people to paste credentials into unfamiliar sites, and it would make this project the holder of other people's keys. If no budget is agreed, ship the demo with the assistant off and a short screen recording instead.

Scope

• A hosted instance reset hourly, writable so that approval flows can actually be tried.
• Sign-in as employee, manager or HR in one click.
• If the assistant is on: cheapest model, a hard spending cap at the provider, and per-IP rate limiting on the assistant routes specifically — the existing per-user caps do nothing when everyone shares a demo account.

Acceptance

Someone with no local setup can approve a leave request within a minute of opening the link, and no single visitor can exceed the spending cap.

Files docs/, README.md, deployment configuration

Tracked in docs/backlog.md.

Start with docs/backlog.md, docs/, README.md, and the deployment configuration to understand the current local setup and the phase-3 blocker. Confirm the LLM funding decision and map the hosted reset, demo sign-in, assistant limits, and deployment work to the stated acceptance criteria: a visitor can approve leave within a minute and cannot exceed the spending cap.