diff --git a/outline.md b/outline.md
index a3782a31..7efecf3b 100644
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+++ b/outline.md
@@ -5,6 +5,54 @@ with a raspberry pi zero 2 W on each roomba, along with a raspberry pi camera
 a central nodejs control server will tell the raspberry pis what to do with the roomba
 
 ## the pi side (roomba side)
+- pi's onboard UART is hooked up to the roomba's serial port
+- another GPIO pin connected to the roomba's BRC pin
+  - pull it low for one second every minute to keep the roomba awake
+- streams the rpi camera over webRTC with mediamtx
+- streams roomba sensor group 100 to the server
+  - sensor streaming is required and important, but is allowed to falter sometimes
+- listens for roomba commands from the server
+  - commands NEED to happen
+- roomba control program needs to be simple, lightweight, and 100% responsive
 
+## pi -> server communication
+- stateless
+- streaming based
+- on connection, the pi will send the following info:
+  - rover's name
+  - motor enable / disable
+    - vacuum
+    - main brush
+    - side brush
+  - battery full number
+  - battery warning number
+  - battery urgent number
 
+## nodejs server
+- KISS
+- decode the sensor data from each roomba
+- can support multiple roombas connected from the ground up
+- keep it simple, worry about getting the pi comms right.
+  - but the server DOES have to exist for testing
+- IS the web server, hosts an entire static folder for the web UI
 
+## server -> web UI communication
+- socket.io
+- don't do anything fancy with the socket.io setup
+  - it works fine out of the box, we will optimize it later
+
+## the web UI
+- KISS
+- plain old html. no styling even. just bare minimum for testing
+- what it needs to do:
+  - allow user to select the roomba from a list
+  - make the selected roomba drive with WASD
+  - have buttons to set the OI mode, and tell the roomba to dock
+  - show a plain list of the sensor data from the selected roomba
+
+### general javascript programming guidelines (applies to the web UI too)
+- everything ES6
+  - one entrypoint file in the web UI
+- everything modular
+- everything easy to read, understand, and work on
+- comment where you think is best to describe whats going on
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