First-time deploy

End-to-end checklist for spinning up a fresh SlabTrack ecosystem from zero. Order matters — JWT secrets need to match before any handoff works, Stripe Connect needs to exist before storefronts can accept payments, etc.

Step 1 · Provision Railway services

1. Create Railway project
2. Add three services (one per repo) — connect each to its GitHub repo
3. Add three Postgres databases — one per service. Reference each service's DATABASE_URL to its Postgres.
4. Custom domains (after env vars are set):
   • SlabTrack: slabtrack.io + www.slabtrack.io
   • ToT: thisorthat.slabtrack.io
   • Storefront: storefront.slabtrack.io

Step 2 · Generate shared secrets

Three secrets must match across all three services:

JWT_SECRET=             # openssl rand -hex 32
ECOSYSTEM_WEBHOOK_SECRET=  # openssl rand -hex 32
SESSION_SECRET=         # openssl rand -hex 32 (SlabTrack only)

Step 3 · Set per-repo env vars

• SlabTrack env vars
• ToT env vars
• Storefront env vars

Step 4 · Stripe setup

Walk through Stripe Setup:

1. Create Stripe account, enable Connect
2. Get test keys
3. Set STRIPE_SECRET_KEY + STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY + NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY on both ToT + Storefront
4. Create webhook endpoints (different events per repo)
5. Set STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET on each from the matching endpoint's signing secret

Step 5 · Shippo setup

Walk through Shippo Setup:

1. Create Shippo account, get test token
2. Set SHIPPO_API_TOKEN on both ToT + Storefront
3. Set the seven SHIP_FROM_* + ADMIN_EMAIL env vars on ToT
4. Per-shop ship-from on Storefront is set later via the dashboard

Step 6 · First deploy

1. Push each repo to its main/master branch — Railway auto-builds
2. Verify each service comes online: https://[domain]/api/health should return 200
3. Check Prisma db push ran (logs in Railway show schema sync)

Step 7 · Create the platform admin user

SlabTrack: register at /register, then manually flip users.is_admin = true via Postgres for the platform owner. ToT + Storefront accept the JWT this user issues.

Step 8 · Create your first storefront

1. Visit storefront.slabtrack.io/dashboard/new
2. Pick a slug (e.g. slabtrackshop)
3. Onboard Stripe Connect → completes the operator account
4. Set ship-from address in /dashboard/[slug]/settings
5. Customize via Theme Studio (optional but worth doing first)

Step 9 · Smoke test

1. Add a card to SlabTrack via PSA cert lookup
2. Run Strategist → commit one card to ToT as a single
3. Verify it appears on thisorthat.slabtrack.io/browse
4. As a buyer (different browser/incognito), play a test Flip with card 4242 4242 4242 4242
5. Verify webhook fires + Order created + label can be printed
6. Confirm the buyer-shipped email arrives

Step 10 · Going live

1. Activate Stripe live mode
2. Replace test keys with live keys on Railway
3. Re-create webhook endpoints in Stripe live mode, update STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET
4. Replace Shippo test token with live token
5. Run a real $1 purchase end-to-end
6. Announce launch