modul 3 — shipping to production
the database in production
Users, entitlements, progress: the state your product can't lose. A serverless Postgres carries it, and database branches let you rehearse changes on real data.
~3 min read · ~9 min with the exercise · v1.1 · verified: 2026-07-15
state that must survive
Auth gave you users, payments gave you entitlements, and both write somewhere: the production database. Files on a server disappear with the server; the database is the one store your product must never lose. For a solo builder the practical choice is a managed serverless Postgres (this platform runs on Neon), where the provider handles backups, scaling, and uptime, and you handle the schema.
Three tables carry this entire platform: user (who you are), entitlement (what you paid for), progress (where you are in the curriculum). Start that small. Each table you add is state you must migrate, back up, and reason about.