5–7 days
Part 1 — Upgrade Your Stack
Replace your current MERN setup with the modern tooling AI apps are built on.
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5–7 days0/3 topics done0/9 tasks done
Topics
What to learn
- File-based routing (/app directory in Next.js 13+)
- Server components vs client components — when to use each
- API routes (/app/api/route.ts) — replaces Express for most AI apps
- Environment variables on the server (never expose API keys to the browser)
- next/image and next/font basics
What to learn
- Install and configure Clerk in a Next.js app
- ClerkProvider, SignIn, UserButton components
- auth() and currentUser() on the server side
- Protecting API routes — reject requests from unauthenticated users
- Getting the userId to attach to database records
What to learn
- Stripe dashboard — products, prices, customers
- stripe npm package on the server
- Creating a checkout session (stripe.checkout.sessions.create)
- Webhooks — Stripe calls your API route when payment succeeds
- Usage-based billing vs flat subscription — know the difference
- Storing stripeCustomerId on your user in MongoDB
Assignment
Assignment
Assignment 1 — Authenticated Next.js Starter
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Every AI product you build from here will use this exact same foundation. Build it once, copy it forward.
Build Requirements
Acceptance Criteria
Notes
My Notes
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