Question 1

What is in the BuildSmiths starter kernel?

Accepted Answer

Next.js 16 App Router, React 19, Tailwind CSS v4, Postgres with Drizzle ORM, and Auth.js v4 email/password auth. Stripe, AI chat, Redis, and Google OAuth are optional add-ons.

Question 2

How do I add Stripe, AI chat, or Redis?

Accepted Answer

Do not fork extra boilerplate. Read START.md, then install vendor skills from skills.sh (for example npx skills add stripe/ai@stripe-best-practices or vercel/ai@ai-sdk) and map them onto db/schema.ts.

Question 3

Does the first Vercel deploy need environment variables?

Accepted Answer

No. The app boots in setup mode. Add DATABASE_URL and AUTH_SECRET afterwards, push the Drizzle schema, and seed a user.