Start Here

Ship by Sunday Docs is the shortest path to running, customizing, and shipping this repo without guessing. Start with local setup, then wire auth, payments, and the first protected flow before you touch the rest of the surface.

If you are new to this stack, do not start by rewriting auth, payments, or access logic. Get the repo running cleanly, confirm the paid handoff works, and then change the obvious product surfaces first.

What the starter already gives you

• a public marketing surface on /
• a docs surface on /docs
• a protected product surface on /start, stable stage-entry routes at /product, /design, /marketing, and /build-plan, nested packet pages under those stage roots, /review, optional /execute after review unlock, and /settings
• a custom Clerk sign-in surface on /sign-in plus pricing-routed account creation instead of a standalone sign-up UI
• Stripe-hosted checkout plus success and cancel flows
• Convex-backed product-access and resume state
• a starter contract and module flags in config/product.ts
• optional post-review bonus routes on /execute, /mission, and /lesson/[lessonKey], plus the legacy /artifacts forward into /review

The fastest path

1. Read Local Setup.
2. Wire Clerk + Convex Auth.
3. Wire Stripe Checkout + Webhook.
4. Run Local QA.
5. Move into Build Your Product.

Change these first

If your goal is to make the starter feel like your product fast, start here:

1. rewrite the brand, promise, and price
2. rewrite the landing page
3. reshape the protected workspace around your real flow
4. keep the paid-access handoff intact until the product already feels like yours

Do not start here on day one

Leave these surfaces alone until the starter already looks like your product:

• app/api/stripe/*
• app/checkout/*
• convex/access.ts and convex/course/*
• server-side Clerk to Convex auth wiring

Those files matter, but they are the fragile part of the purchase-to-access contract.

Choose the right track

• Need the architecture picture first? Read How the Starter Works.
• Need the shortest setup path? Read Local Setup.
• Need help shaping the starter into your product? Read Build Your Product.
• Need the local packet intake workflow outside the web UI? Read Ship by Sunday CLI.
• Need the exact homepage control seam? Read Configure the Homepage.
• Need the starter seams first? Read Customize the Starter.
• Need the local video-processing and Bunny publish flow? Read Video Pipeline.
• Need help working with an AI coding agent? Read IDE + Terminal Basics and The Build Loop.
• Need the fastest debug order? Start in Troubleshooting Access.

Source-of-truth boundaries

• content/docs/ is the shipped public docs experience.
• docs/ is the contributor and engineering source of truth.
• docs/internal/ is internal launch ops and should not drive the public builder journey.

What success looks like

You are in a good place to customize once you can say all of this is true:

• the app boots locally
• you can sign in
• a user without access sees the right locked state
• a user with granted access reaches /start
• checkout and webhook wiring are understood, even if you have not changed them yet