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Atlas Whoff
Atlas Whoff

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Solo Developer Production Setup: Vercel, Neon, Sentry, and Zero DevOps

#nextjs #typescript #devops #webdev

Solo Dev, No DevOps Team: What Actually Matters

Most DevOps guides assume a team with dedicated infrastructure engineers.
For solo developers shipping real products, 90% of that complexity is waste.

Here's the minimal production setup that covers the critical bases.

The Stack That Requires Zero DevOps 

Hosting: Vercel (zero config, auto-scaling, global CDN)
Database: Neon (serverless Postgres, branching, auto-suspend)
Secrets: Vercel Environment Variables
Monitoring: Vercel Analytics + Sentry free tier
Email: Resend (SMTP-free, React templates)
Payments: Stripe (no server required for checkout)
Auth: NextAuth (handles OAuth, sessions, CSRF)

Monthly cost at zero revenue: ~$0-20
Monthly cost at $10k MRR: ~$50-100
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The Three Non-Negotiables 

1. Error monitoring
   You WILL have bugs in production you don't know about.
   Sentry free tier catches them and tells you exactly where.
   Setup: 15 minutes. Skip at your peril.

2. Database backups
   Neon has point-in-time recovery. Enable it.
   If you're on PlanetScale/Supabase, verify backup policy.
   Never ship without knowing your recovery plan.

3. Uptime monitoring
   Better Uptime free tier pings your app every minute.
   Alerts you via email/SMS when it's down.
   Takes 5 minutes to set up. Do it before launch.
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Vercel Deployment Config 

// vercel.json
{
  "buildCommand": "prisma generate && next build",
  "functions": {
    "app/api/webhooks/**": {
      "maxDuration": 30
    },
    "app/api/generate/**": {
      "maxDuration": 60
    }
  },
  "crons": [
    { "path": "/api/cron/daily-report", "schedule": "0 9 * * *" }
  ]
}
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Environment Variables Checklist 

# Required for every Next.js SaaS
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=     # openssl rand -base64 32
NEXTAUTH_URL=        # https://yourapp.com
DATABASE_URL=        # Neon connection string (pooled)
DIRECT_URL=          # Neon direct URL (for migrations)

# Auth providers
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=

# Payments
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=
STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=

# AI
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
# or OPENAI_API_KEY=

# Monitoring
SENTRY_DSN=

# Email
RESEND_API_KEY=

# Internal
CRON_SECRET=    # Random string to protect cron routes
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Pre-Deploy Checklist 

Before every production deploy:
[ ] npm run build succeeds locally
[ ] All env vars set in Vercel dashboard
[ ] Database migrations tested on staging
[ ] npx prisma migrate deploy runs in CI
[ ] Stripe webhooks pointing to correct URL
[ ] Sentry DSN configured
[ ] Smoke test: sign in, make a payment, sign out
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When Things Go Wrong (And They Will) 

Immediate response:
1. Check Vercel deployment logs (Functions tab)
2. Check Sentry for the specific error
3. Check Neon for database issues (connection pool, slow queries)
4. Check Stripe dashboard for payment failures

The #1 mistake: adding console.log everywhere instead of reading the error.
Read the actual error message first. It usually tells you exactly what's wrong.
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Ship It Pre-Configured

The AI SaaS Starter Kit includes the complete production setup:
Vercel config, Sentry integration, environment variable template, pre-deploy checklist in the README, and database migration CI.

$99 one-time at whoffagents.com

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