Hey,
okay, as promised on Tuesday: the full stack behind one of my main vibe-coded apps.
I’m not going to name the app, and this isn’t a brag list (although next week, I will share a named app). It’s a map of what a production setup looks like when a real product runs on it with tens of thousands of users. Every tool below is an employee: one job, a salary, a plain-English job description.
Fair warning: this is a pro-level setup, assembled over 15 months. If you’re brand new to vibe-coding, don’t copy it this week. At the bottom is the version you should start with (3 tools to get started, everything under $25/month) and one prompt that sets it up for you.
In today’s email: the full 19-tool payroll with real prices, the 3 rules that make a stack scale, what I’d swap if I started over, the starter version with a copy-paste setup prompt, and the week’s news that actually affects you.
One term before we start, because it explains every hiring decision here. A CLI is the text-command version of an app. It matters because AI agents can type. Any tool with a CLI or an API is a tool your AI can operate for you while you sleep. That’s the theme of this whole stack.
The Builders (the robots that write the code)
Zed.dev (free, Pro $10/mo): the code editor everything happens in. Fast, and built for running AI agents inside it. This replaces Claude Code or Cursor (or Lovable!).
Claude ($20/mo, Claude Code included): the actual coding robot. I used to run Codex; I don’t anymore.
GitHub (free): every change to the code, saved forever, with an undo button. Non-negotiable, even for non-coders. Especially for non-coders.
Design: I use an AI workflow that builds a full design system from a screenshot of any site I admire, and the agent sticks to it. That exact workflow is in the Vault. We’ll cover this in a future issue.
The Building (where the app lives)
AWS (usage-based, think $10-75/mo for a small app): the rented computers the app runs on. Managed entirely via CLI, which means the robots manage it, not me. (i can appear really complex - so i had to grow into this one.)
Cloudflare (nearly free at small scale): stores and serves every image. Its killer feature is a price of $0 for bandwidth, which is the bill that usually eats image-heavy apps. (pro tip, serve all images via WebP for ultra fast sites.)
Vercel ($20/mo): hosts the marketing site. Push code, site updates, done.
Supabase ($25/mo, generous free tier): database plus login system in one. I use it for smaller side projects (more on that in a future issue).
Trigger.dev (free to $10/mo): runs the slow background chores, like resizing photos or sending notifications, so the app never freezes.
Notice the shape: the marketing site and the app are separate buildings. I can tear either one down and rebuild it without touching the other. Remember that one.
The Money
Stripe (2.9% + 30 cents per sale): takes the payments. No monthly fee; it earns when you earn.
Clerk (free tier now covers 50,000 returning users): the login system. It works. But see the swaps section below as i probably wouldn’t recommend.
The Megaphone (how people find it)
Meta and Google Ads, managed through their APIs (doable solo for your own account; both make you fill in forms and wait first).
Instagram, posted to daily by a small tool I built on the official API.
Outrank ($99/mo): writes and publishes SEO articles on autopilot. Took about 3 months before i started getting real organic traffic.
Winnr ($69/mo): the email infrastructure for outreach and partnerships, so the main domain never risks the spam folder. I manage it all via Zed - my ‘Ops interface’.
Resend (free to $20/mo): sends the marketing and product emails, receipts, etc.
The Watchers (so I sleep at night)
PostHog (free up to 1M events/mo): shows what users actually do in the app. I connected it to Claude via MCP, so I literally ask my analytics questions in plain English.
GA4 + Google Tag Manager (free): the standard visitor counting. Both can now be set up by an AI through official APIs, which beats clicking through 40 settings screens. sort of table stakes for tracking/pixel management, but less necessary these days.
Sentry (free tier): tells me the moment something crashes, with the receipt of what went wrong so i can pump it back into Zed to fix.
Slack (free): where all of the above sends its alerts. My phone buzzes when a robot needs a human, or when someone new signs up!
Fixed software bill for a small version of all this: roughly $150-250/month. The starter version below: under $25.
The tools will change. These won’t:
Keep the marketing site and the app separate. Different buildings, different tools, fearless rebuilds. makes it easier for AI to query it when adding new features.
Own your code and your data from day one. Code ends up in GitHub, data somewhere exportable. Topical: Lovable shipped database export two weeks ago, so even there you’re no longer locked in.
Prefer tools a robot can operate. CLI or API available means your AI can do the work. That’s the difference between you managing 19 tools and you managing zero, with dozens of browser tabs open.
The skill isn’t picking perfect tools. It’s picking tools you can leave for AI.
Clerk → Supabase auth. Clerk is good and its free tier got generous this year. But Supabase already holds my data, and one system holding both data and logins is one less thing to duct-tape together. Building B2B (teams, permissions)? Keep Clerk.
Figma → the screenshot skill. I don’t open a design tool anymore. Screenshot a site you love, generate a design system, make the agent obey it.
Codex → Claude. Made the switch, haven’t looked back. Ask me again in six months; this category moves fast.
If you’re new, here is the entire starter payroll: Lovable (builds the app), GitHub (owns the code, and Lovable connects to it in two clicks), Stripe Payment Link (takes money with zero code). Add free PostHog when you’re curious who’s using it.
And you don’t have to set any of it up alone. I turned this whole issue into a Vault kit with one centerpiece: the Concierge Prompt. Paste it into Claude and it interviews you about what you’re building, picks the 3 to 5 tools you actually need, and then sets up every account and connection with you, one confirmed step at a time. It assumes you’ve never touched a terminal, explains every new word in one sentence, and is banned from putting you on a paid plan without telling you the price first.
Get the Concierge Prompt in the Vault →
Same page has the full annotated stack map (every gotcha included, like which free tiers silently pause) and the first-three-hires guide, all as files you can keep.
GPT-5.6 goes public today. All three variants (Sol, Terra, Luna) open up globally after the government review lifted. API pricing runs $1 to $5 per million input tokens depending on variant, so expect your builder tools to add them within days. Rollout may be staged; if you don’t see it yet, that’s normal. exciting!
Two Claude deadlines this weekend. Fable 5’s included access on paid plans ends Sunday, July 12 (it was extended from the 7th), and the +50% Claude Code weekly-limits promo ends Monday at 6 PM Pacific. Translation: this weekend is the cheap window for your big build. let me know what you’re working on!
Lovable killed its own lock-in. You can now export your app’s database (shipped July 3) and there’s a Windows desktop app as of Monday. Even if you never leave Lovable, go press Export once. Owning a copy of your data is rule number two of today’s issue.
Set a spending cap on every tool that bills by usage, today. Vercel’s overage is uncapped by default. So is AWS. So are API keys. Every “I woke up to a $3,000 bill” story is a missing checkbox. Vercel: Settings, then Spend Management. AWS: search “Budgets.” Anthropic: Settings, then Usage limits. Ten minutes, once.
The prompt above lives in the Vault, which we rebuilt this week into three shelves: Start here (no jargon, no terminal, copy-paste prompts), Ship it, and Run it like a business. All free. I’ll keep updating this over time.
Run the Concierge Prompt this weekend, then reply and tell me what you set up. Best reply gets featured next week.
Cheers,
Jonathan
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.