Build a Thumbnail Creator with Claude Code

Build a Thumbnail Creator web app. People search for "thumbnail creator" about 6,100 times a month, plus related searches like "youtube thumbnail maker", "video thumbnail creator", "thumbnail design tool". The goal is a tool that ranks for those searches and makes money.

What it should do:
Build a thumbnail creator web app. Create a homepage with template categories (Gaming, Education, Business, Entertainment) showing preview thumbnails. When users select a template, open an editor with text overlay tools, image upload, and element positioning. Add YouTube-optimized dimensions (1280x720) and preview how it looks in search results. Include text effects, arrow tools, and emoji library. Show character limits and readability checks. Use YouTube-inspired red and white colors with clear CTAs. Focus on template selection and basic editing first.

How to build it:
1. Read this folder first. If it is empty, set up Next.js (App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind). Write a short PLAN.md with the pages, components, any library or API you need, and what you are leaving for later. Then build.
2. Put the tool itself on the homepage so a visitor can use it within seconds, with no sign-up. Do the processing in the browser where you can, so it is fast and cheap to run. Look at how Canva, Adobe Express, PicMonkey do it and make ours simpler and faster.
3. Make it rank. Use "thumbnail creator" in the title tag, H1 and meta description. Under the tool, add a short how-to and an FAQ with FAQPage schema, and add a sitemap and robots.txt. Scaffold these programmatic pages from one template and a data file: /thumbnail-creator-for-[platform], /[content-type]-thumbnail-maker, /create-thumbnails-for-[niche].
4. Monetisation: Freemium: 5 templates, $8/mo unlimited + premium elements. Add a pricing page and the free usage limit, and leave Stripe checkout as a clearly marked stub with the environment variables it needs.
5. Run it locally and test the main flow end to end, including edge cases like empty input and very large files. Fix what breaks, then finish with a summary of what works, what is stubbed and how to deploy it to Vercel.

Paste it into Claude Code in an empty folder. It plans first, so read PLAN.md and steer before it starts building.