Hosting

A site runs on Netlify (Astro SSR) with a hosted Supabase project for the database, auth and storage.

1. Supabase

Create a project at supabase.com, then link it and apply the migrations:

npx supabase link --project-ref <project-ref>
npx supabase db push --linked

Under Authentication > URL Configuration:

• set the Site URL to your domain;
• add https://<your-domain>/admin/set-password/ to the Redirect URLs. Invitation and password-reset links land on that page;
• using Members, also add https://<your-domain>/account/**, where members’ sign-up, invitation and password links land.

Invitations to editors and members are sent by the site over its SMTP settings, and their links last 7 days. Password links (and invitations on a site without SMTP) come from Supabase Auth and last as long as Authentication > Providers > Email > Email OTP Expiration (an hour by default, which Supabase recommends keeping). Set up SMTP so invitations get the longer links.

Note

Hosted projects don’t grant the API roles access to new tables the way the local stack does. Migration 0019 grants them and sets default privileges; row-level security does the rest.

The database API is for editors only

The anon key is public (the browser needs it to sign in), so the database’s API is closed to everyone but editors (migration *_closed_api.sql): anonymous requests and signed-in accounts that aren’t editors, such as members, get nothing from it. The site reads on the server with the service_role key and shows visitors only published, permitted content. Keep SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY out of anything the browser loads (only PUBLIC_ variables reach it).

2. Seed and create an admin

Point a copy of .env at the hosted project (its URL, anon key and service_role key, from Project Settings > API) and run the same commands as locally:

npx tsx --env-file=.env.production scripts/seed.ts
npx tsx --env-file=.env.production scripts/create-editor.ts you@example.org 'a-password' admin

To move local media to the hosted storage bucket, use scripts/copy-storage.ts (resumable).

3. Netlify

• Create a site from your repository. The build settings are in netlify.toml.
• Set the same environment variables as .env: the Supabase URL and keys, plus the optional Compose, SMTP and payment ones.
• Add your domain.

Netlify deploys the site’s functions with it:

Function	What it does
compose-background.mts	Runs Compose jobs (up to 15 minutes)
restore-background.mts	Runs backup restores
scheduled-snapshot.mts	Takes scheduled snapshots, daily at 07:00 UTC
ticket-emails.mts	Hourly: ticket reminders and follow-ups, expired holds, automatic waitlists
mail-send-background.mts	Mailing: one sending run of a campaign (up to 15 minutes)
mail-due.mts	Mailing, every 5 minutes: scheduled campaigns, weekly digest issues, issues not approved in time
mail-nightly.mts	Mailing, nightly: Mailgun’s bounces, complaints and unsubscribes; pruning

Payments

To take payments on forms or tickets, set one provider’s keys and add its webhook. One endpoint per provider serves both:

• Stripe: https://<your-domain>/api/payments/stripe, with the checkout.session.*, charge.refunded and charge.refund.updated events; its signing secret is STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET.
• Square: https://<your-domain>/api/payments/square, with payment.created, payment.updated, refund.created and refund.updated; its signature key is SQUARE_WEBHOOK_SIGNATURE_KEY, and SQUARE_WEBHOOK_URL must be that exact address (the signature covers it).

Free tickets need no provider. See Tickets and Forms.

Mailing

To send Mailing campaigns and digests, set up Mailgun:

• Add a sending domain for marketing, a subdomain such as news.<your-domain>, separate from the domain the site’s other mail uses, so its reputation stays its own.
• Add the DNS records Mailgun gives for it: SPF, DKIM and the tracking CNAME (such as email.news.<your-domain>), and publish a DMARC record (p=none at first, quarantine once the reports are clean).
• Turn on open tracking for that domain. Leave click and unsubscribe tracking off: the site tracks clicks itself and handles unsubscribing, with its own one-click List-Unsubscribe header.
• Add a webhook to https://<your-domain>/api/mailgun/webhook for delivered, opened, permanent failure, temporary failure, spam complaint and unsubscribed events, and set its signing key as MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY.
• Set MAILGUN_API_KEY, MAILGUN_DOMAIN, MAILGUN_REGION (eu for EU accounts) and MAIL_LINK_SECRET. MAILGUN_TEST_MODE=true makes Mailgun accept emails and deliver none.
• Before the first real campaign, send tests to Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo addresses, and check that Gmail shows its Unsubscribe link next to the sender.

A shared IP is enough to start; a dedicated one is worth it only past roughly 50,000 emails a month, with a warmup plan.

4. Invite editors

Admins invite editors from /admin/users/. See Editor and roles.

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL, PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY	The Supabase project
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY	Server-side access
SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASS, SMTP_SECURE or SMTP_URL	Outgoing mail
MAIL_FROM	Sender, overriding the config’s mailFrom
FORMS_ADMIN_EMAIL	Where form notifications go when a form doesn’t say
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Stripe payments
SQUARE_ACCESS_TOKEN, SQUARE_LOCATION_ID, SQUARE_ENVIRONMENT, SQUARE_WEBHOOK_SIGNATURE_KEY, SQUARE_WEBHOOK_URL	Square payments
TICKETS_NOTIFY_EMAIL	Where the copy of each ticket order goes (default FORMS_ADMIN_EMAIL, then adminEmail)
SITE_URL	The site’s address for links in ticket emails (default Netlify’s URL)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_MODEL	Compose (ANTHROPIC_MODEL overrides the default model, claude-sonnet-5-5)
ANTHROPIC_SEO_MODEL	SEO text generation (default Haiku 4.5)
MAILGUN_API_KEY, MAILGUN_DOMAIN, MAILGUN_REGION, MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY, MAILGUN_TEST_MODE	Mailing through Mailgun
MAIL_LINK_SECRET	The key for signed links in mailing emails (default: one made from the service key)
LOCAL_ADMIN_EMAIL, LOCAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD	The admin the e2e scripts sign in as