I have been a fan of premium cigars for a few years now, and I kept falling into the same annoyance each time I wanted to restock, I would have multiple tabs open comparing prices against vendors. There are some solutions out there, but I felt they were dated and left a lot of room for improvement. This is what inspired me to start CigarEdge.com.

Stack: Python 3.12 / FastAPI, Next.js 14 / PostgreSQL

Github: cigar-edge

Learning Notes

Core Systems

• Fuzzy Product Matching - Three-stage matching engine with confidence scoring
• Deal Scoring - Percentile-based algorithm for surfacing price drops
• Data Pipeline - Multi-source ingestion (affiliate feeds, HTML crawlers, catalog builder)

Architecture

• Catalog Pattern in Practice - Brand > Line > Vitola > PackSize hierarchy

Development Map

• Matching engine
• Data pipeline
• Backend
• MVP UI

Future Items

• [] Price drop notifications
• [] User accounts
• [] Virtual Humidor
• [] Shipping + tax total calculations