Notes from the workshop: the stack, the infrastructure, and how I actually build.
Static rendering, honest images, and SEO plumbing that works even with JavaScript switched off. How this site stays fast and findable, and how I verify it.
The key move is not asking the AI to write code. It is having a real conversation with a thinking model about the idea, getting it to write the spec, then handing that spec to a coding agent. Two stages, completely different jobs.
The agent mints an ephemeral SSH key via the Ploi API, attaches it to the server, runs its task, and deletes the key when done. Zero lingering access. Here is the full story of deploying this portfolio with that model.
A fixed, opinionated stack handed to an AI coding agent at the start of every session beats letting it pick dependencies each time. Fewer decisions, reusable conventions, compounding familiarity across projects. Here is what I give it and why.
Self-hosted auth with Better Auth, transactional email with Resend. No vendor lock-in, no hidden costs, and a setup that an AI coding agent can reproduce from a markdown file.
Database, cache, object storage, reverse proxy, and the app itself, defined once in a single file and started together. Compose is how a solo developer runs a real production stack without a runbook.
A cheap Hetzner VPS plus Cloudflare in front is a better stack than most startups run. Here is why I use it for every project, and the one case where I would skip it.
Push a commit and forget about it. The server fetches, rebuilds, and restarts itself. Here is the exact setup: supervisor daemons, a nightly update cron, automated backups, and TLS that renews without you.
South Tyrol's Province reimburses up to 60% of eligible digitalisation costs for micro-enterprises. Here is how to use that money to build a fast, multilingual, owned website instead of another rented template.
Every new project triggers the same debate. Postgres or MySQL? SQLite? Neon? Here is why I keep reaching for MySQL 8.4 and Prisma 7 and feeling no regret about it.
Most South Tyrol businesses either publish in one language or slap on a Google Translate widget. Both approaches fail your customers and Google alike. Here is how to do it properly.
Over 80% of people looking for a local service start on Google. If your business is missing from the map and the local pack, you are handing work to competitors every day. Here is how to fix that.
Your guests are asking the same ten questions at midnight. An AI assistant trained on your own information can answer them instantly, in German, Italian, English, and more — no extra staff required.
You do not need AWS to get S3-compatible object storage. One container, the same API, zero egress fees, and a clean path to the cloud when you actually need it.
Your speck, wine, and honey deserve customers in Munich and Milan — not just the Tuesday market. Here is how a small producer in South Tyrol can build a proper online shop and keep the margin.
Most small business websites in South Tyrol are quietly breaking EU privacy law — not through bad intentions, but through three or four default choices that looked harmless. Here is how to fix them before the Garante or a data-protection authority knocks.
Your Instagram following is real — but the land beneath it belongs to someone else. Here is why every South Tyrol business needs a home base it actually owns.
Cut through the hype: here is where AI genuinely saves hours for a South Tyrol Pension, Tischler, or Hofladen — and where you still need to be the human in the loop.
Defaulting to AWS or Azure makes sense until you ask where your customers' data actually lives. Here is why I run everything on Hetzner in Germany — and why local businesses in Südtirol should care.
Electron ships a full browser with every app. Tauri uses the OS webview and a Rust core, cutting bundle size by 10x and memory by half. Here is what that trade actually costs you.
Booking.com and Airbnb are excellent at finding you new guests. They are expensive at keeping them. Here is the math — and how a direct-booking setup pays for itself many times over.
One dashboard, one API, and a handful of markdown files. Here is how Ploi handles everything a solo operator needs from a production server without locking you into anything you cannot escape via SSH.
AWS and GCP are fine until you see the bill. Here is why I moved my infrastructure to Hetzner VPS and never looked back.
Managed databases charge you for convenience you might not need. A self-hosted Postgres on a bare-metal box cuts your bill, kills network latency, and hands you the backup strategy you should have had anyway.
Every WordPress project I have touched turns into a plugin treadmill and a Lighthouse disaster. After migrating two client sites to Next.js, I am not going back.
Off-the-shelf admin tools force your business into their data model. A thin, honest layer that reads your own database and surfaces the few decisions that matter takes days, not months.
The AI agent is not the operator. You are. Here is the mental model, the memory architecture, and the verification discipline that turns a chaotic LLM session into a reliable shipping loop.
