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Putting postecho online

Locally, postecho needs no account: npm run setup and npm run dev are enough. To reach it from your phone, or to keep it running while your laptop sleeps, the web app goes on Vercel and its database on Neon. The agent stays on your computer, because that's where Claude Code runs on your own plan. Both free tiers are enough for one person.

1. The database

  1. Create a project on Neon and copy the pooled connection string.

  2. Create the tables from web/:

    cd web
DATABASE_URL="postgres://…" npx drizzle-kit migrate

    Run the same command again after every update that adds a migration in web/drizzle/.

2. The web app

  1. Create a Vercel project with web/ as its root directory. The framework preset is Next.js (web/vercel.json).

  2. Add the environment variables. web/.env.example explains each one and how to generate it.

    Variable
    DATABASE_URL the Neon string from step 1
    ADMIN_PASSWORD your login password
    SESSION_SECRET openssl rand -base64 32
    AGENT_TOKEN openssl rand -hex 24, shared with the agent
    CAPTURE_TOKEN openssl rand -hex 24
    CRON_SECRET openssl rand -hex 24, only for the daily search below
    TYPESAFE_API_KEY optional: Jev ranks what searches find and scores how human a text reads

    The keys of the extra sources (Bluesky, GitHub, Mastodon and the others) are optional too. Settings also takes some of them, stored in the database and never sent back to the browser.

  3. Deploy:

    vercel deploy --prod --cwd web

3. The agent on your computer

The agent takes jobs from the web app and runs Claude Code headless. Point it at the deployed app in agent/.env:

POSTECHO_URL=https://your-project.vercel.app
AGENT_TOKEN=the same value as the web app's AGENT_TOKEN

On a Mac, to keep it running in the background and have it start again at login, install it as a launchd daemon: see agent/README.md. For unattended runs, claude setup-token gives it a long-lived login.

4. A daily search (optional)

GET /api/cron/scout runs "Search my topics" for the topics set in Settings, authenticated by CRON_SECRET. To run it every morning, add a cron to web/vercel.json:

{
  "framework": "nextjs",
  "crons": [{ "path": "/api/cron/scout", "schedule": "0 6 * * *" }]
}

Vercel sends Authorization: Bearer $CRON_SECRET on its own when that variable is set. The Hobby plan allows one run a day.

What it costs

  • Vercel Hobby and Neon's free tier: free for a personal project; one person's posts are a few megabytes.
  • Claude: your Claude plan (Pro or Max). The agent calls Claude Code on your computer, with no API key and no per-token bill.
  • Jev: optional, billed by TypeSafe: it ranks what a search finds and scores how human a draft reads.
  • X's API: optional and billed by X per use, only if you add your own key to search X.