AppStore2031

An independent, AI-assisted research project that imagines and explains the software marketplaces, executable services and digital products people may rely on by 31 July 2031.

The project has three linked outputs:

1. A familiar marketplace experience showing a research-derived Top 10 in every forecast category, including categories and listable units that do not exist today.
2. A public evidence trail explaining the sources, assumptions, scenarios, uncertainty, criticism, and revisions behind every result.
3. An installed app-store-forecast-refresh skill for producing later, immutable forecast snapshots.

This repository is being rebuilt through a second approved Gauntlet Loop. The active operational record is in GAUNTLET.md; the first run is preserved at docs/archive/GAUNTLET-CONTINUITY-DRAFT.md.

Status

The first local edition has been withdrawn and superseded before publication. Its method produced a careful continuity forecast whose central products were often achievable between 2026 and 2028, rather than a sufficiently future-native view of 2031. Its 23 categories, 230 listings and ranks are no longer shown as the active forecast.

The failed draft remains preserved for audit. The replacement local candidate has now been generated from six cross-impact future worlds, 60 changed actors, 74 recurring needs, six provisional marketplace categories and 72 sealed concepts. A bounded final synthesis selected 60 fictional Top 10 listings and documented the two exclusions in every category. Every selected fictional name also passed a dated exact-name web screen; that screen is explicitly not legal or trademark clearance. The complete postmortem is in docs/FORECAST_POSTMORTEM_V1.md and the final synthesis method and limitations are in docs/FINAL_SYNTHESIS_AND_LIMITS.md.

The repository and installed app-store-forecast-refresh skill now use the future-world-first method and the bounded final synthesis actually used by this edition. It creates a new dated edition and does not copy today's categories, apps or ranks forward.

The active edition remains a working educational forecast rather than a frozen claim about 2031. Its authorised public home is appstore2031.com.

Local development

Install dependencies, then start the Cloudflare Worker development server:

npm install
npm run dev

Wrangler builds the site, serves it at http://localhost:8791, and rebuilds when the source, public assets, versioned data or HTML entry point changes. The project requires Node 22 or newer for Wrangler. If your shell is still on Node 20 but Node 22 is installed through nvm, the project launcher selects that compatible runtime automatically, so npm run dev remains the only command you need. The included .nvmrc is still available if you prefer to run nvm use. npm run serve remains available as a lightweight server for an already-built dist directory, but npm run dev is the normal development route.

npm run validate:data validates every edition with the validator for its recorded method. Use npm run validate:edition -- <edition-id> to check one edition. npm run validate:v1:archive checks only the withdrawn v1 archive's historical file structure; it does not restore that catalogue or its ranks as a valid forecast. npm test runs the active future-native and product tests; npm run test:v1:archive runs the preserved continuity-draft regression suite separately.

The production build is allowlisted. It includes the compact validated v2 storefront projection, public v2 method/evidence library and a bounded v1 withdrawal record. It does not publish internal workflow packets, failed agent runs, raw audit machinery or the withdrawn 230-listing inventory.

The same build creates stable, crawlable research pages for the forecast, six categories, 60 fictional listings, six possible worlds, the method, the source register, every public research record, the current edition and the correction history. These pages contain visible text without requiring JavaScript, unique canonical metadata, truthful CreativeWork/Dataset structured data, suggested citations, a sitemap, robots.txt and llms.txt. Fictional listings are deliberately not marked up as real products, software, ratings or reviews. The app-store-style interface links each listing panel to its permanent research page.

Canonical URLs default to https://appstore2031.com. A different host can be tested without changing source files:

APPSTORE2031_SITE_URL=https://example.test npm run build

The old snapshot, closing and freeze commands are explicitly named snapshot:v1:archive, prepare:seal:v1:archive and freeze:v1:archive and refuse a future-native-v2 manifest before writing. They are retained only to explain the withdrawn edition's historical lifecycle; they are not the release path for this rebuild.

Worker deployment

Validate the complete deployment without publishing anything:

npm run deploy:dry-run

Deploy the validated static application to the appstore2031 Cloudflare Worker:

npm run deploy

The real deployment command runs data validation, type checking and all tests before Wrangler builds and uploads the site. The committed Custom Domain route attaches the Worker to appstore2031.com; changing or adding another public hostname remains a separate, explicit release action.

Non-affiliation

AppStore2031 is an independent educational futures project. It is not an app marketplace and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. All forecast listings, providers, rankings and reviews are fictional.