Published Updated 2 min read

New Product Setup Checklist

My checklist for setting up a new product, from code and infrastructure to branding, search, and launch.

Project setup checklist with code, infrastructure, identity, and launch sections Project setup checklist with code, infrastructure, identity, and launch sections

This is my checklist for setting up a new product, from my preferred stack for new repos to infrastructure, branding, and search. These are my defaults; I only add the apps and services the product needs.

Code

  • Monorepo: Turborepo with Bun workspaces
  • Package Manager: Bun
  • Development Tool Versions: mise to install and switch project-specific runtimes and CLI tools, with version pins in a committed mise.toml
  • Landing Page: Astro
  • Web App & Admin Panel: React with TanStack Router for file-based routing and Vite
  • API: Hono running on Bun, deployed as Vercel Functions with the Bun runtime and Fluid Compute
  • Desktop App: Electron
  • Authentication: Better Auth
  • ORM & Migrations: Drizzle
  • Styling & Components: Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui
  • Linting & Formatting for TypeScript Apps: Oxlint + Oxfmt for Bun + Hono APIs, Electron, CLI apps, React apps, and other non-Astro TypeScript projects
  • Linting & Formatting for Astro: ESLint + eslint-plugin-astro for linting; Prettier + prettier-plugin-astro for formatting
  • Version Control: GitHub
  • Project Instructions: Coding agent rules + OpenSpec skill

Infrastructure

  • Hosting: Vercel Pro for the landing page, web app, admin panel, and API
  • CI/CD: Vercel’s GitHub integration
  • Domain Registrar: Porkbun
  • DNS & DDoS Protection: Cloudflare Free with proxy enabled for the project domains
  • Cloudflare Settings: Full (strict) SSL, Bot Fight Mode, and a rate limit rule for /api/*
  • Database: PlanetScale Postgres, single node in AWS us-east-1, one database per product
  • Database Failover: PlanetScale three-node HA when needed
  • File Storage & CDN: Cloudflare R2 with a custom cdn. subdomain, accessed through the S3 SDK
  • Background Workers: Railway when needed
  • Logs & Error Alerts: Axiom Personal, one dataset per product, connected to Vercel with error level monitors
  • Product Analytics & Error Tracking: PostHog when the product has users
  • Transactional Email: Resend with the sending domains verified
  • Secrets: Vercel environment variables for Production, Preview, and Development; vercel env pull for local development
  • Secrets Across Hosts: Doppler if the product runs on multiple hosts
  • App-Level Rate Limiting: Hono middleware

Product Identity

  • Name: Finalize the product name
  • Description: Write a one-line explanation of what it does
  • Tagline: Write a short tagline
  • Logo: Generate the main logo and icon
  • Site Assets: Create the favicon and social sharing image
  • Email Addresses: Set up the product’s domain email addresses

Search & Launch

  • SEO Metadata: Add page titles, descriptions, and social sharing metadata
  • Sitemap: Generate sitemap.xml
  • Robots: Configure robots.txt
  • Google Search Console: Verify the domain and submit the sitemap
  • Launch Check: Test the live landing page, app, API, and email flow
project setupweb developmentinfrastructureproduct launch