Val Town is a collaborative website to build and scale JavaScript apps.
Deploy APIs, crons, & store data – all from the browser, and deployed in milliseconds.
A searchable directory of rental properties, apartment complexes, and property managers, maintained by The Haven to help clients find housing. Replaces a manually-updated Excel spreadsheet.
- Browse: anyone with the link can search, filter by area, and print.
- Edit: staff sign in with a shared password (
ADMIN_PASSWORDenv var) to add, edit, delete, or mark a listing's contact info as verified today.
Data was imported from the "Landlord Directory FY25" spreadsheet in July 2026
and lives in this val's SQLite database (backend/db.ts).
A weekly cron job (backend/cron.ts, runs Mondays 9 AM UTC) uses OpenAI's web
search to find new rental properties and property management companies in the
Charlottesville area that aren't already in the directory. New finds are:
- Inserted into the database automatically.
- Tagged with "AI-discovered — verify contact info" in the notes field.
- Left for staff to review and verify contact details.
The discovery logic lives in backend/discover.ts and uses
std/openai with the Responses API,
the web_search tool, and structured outputs.