What is in the BuildSmiths starter kernel?

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.

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

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.

Does the first Vercel deploy need environment variables?

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

BuildSmiths starter

One page for humans and coding agents. This repo is a **kernel**: Next.js 16, Postgres, Drizzle, Auth.js v4. It is not a chatbot, not a Stripe app, and not a marketplace.

Live demo: https://buildsmiths-nextjs-postgres.vercel.app Source: https://github.com/buildsmiths/buildsmiths-nextjs-postgres

What you get

App Router pages in app/
Auth (email + password) in lib/auth.ts and /auth
Drizzle schema in db/schema.ts: users, subscriptions, audit_events
Dashboard and account that read that schema
Setup mode on Vercel if env vars are missing
Optional add-ons as skills (.agents/skills/) plus vendor skills on skills.sh

What you do not get until you ask

Stripe, Google OAuth UI, Vercel AI SDK, Redis, Resend. Those stay out of package.json so every clone stays predictable.

First commands

git clone https://github.com/buildsmiths/buildsmiths-nextjs-postgres.git my-app
cd my-app
npm install
cp .env.example .env.local
# set DATABASE_URL and AUTH_SECRET (openssl rand -base64 32)
npm run db:push
npm run db:seed
npm run dev

Seed login: dev@example.com / Password123!

Vercel: import the **repository root** (not app/). First deploy can omit env vars.

After clone, ask the human

1. Local Postgres or Neon? 2. Credentials only, or Google too? 3. Billing (Stripe) or not? 4. Chat / AI SDK or not? 5. Email (Resend) or Redis or neither?

Then install **only** the matching vendor skills and map them onto db/schema.ts. Do not scaffold a second auth stack or a second ORM.

Add-ons (skills.sh)

The skills CLI is how agents load vendor docs. Prefer the vendor owner on skills.sh.

npx skills add neondatabase/agent-skills@neon-postgres
npx skills add stripe/ai@stripe-best-practices
npx skills add vercel/ai@ai-sdk
npx skills add redis/agent-skills@redis-core
npx skills add resend/resend-skills@resend

This repo’s thin skills (how those map onto *this* kernel):

.agents/skills/buildsmiths/SKILL.md — first session
.agents/skills/add-stripe/SKILL.md
.agents/skills/add-ai-sdk/SKILL.md
.agents/skills/add-google-auth/SKILL.md
.agents/skills/add-async-jobs/SKILL.md

Human-readable copies live in blueprints/.

Example paste prompt

> Clone buildsmiths/buildsmiths-nextjs-postgres. Read START.md. Keep Drizzle and Auth.js v4. Then npx skills add vercel/ai@ai-sdk neondatabase/agent-skills@neon-postgres and add a signed-in chat page on the existing users table.

Layout

app/ — routes, layouts, server actions
.agents/skills/ — agent skills
blueprints/ — same add-ons as markdown
db/schema.ts — Drizzle
lib/ — env, db, auth, seo
scripts/seed.ts — seed user

Rules for agents

Read START.md and .agents/skills/buildsmiths/SKILL.md before editing.
Do not replace Auth.js v4 with Auth.js v5 / Better Auth / Clerk unless asked.
Do not replace Drizzle with Prisma unless asked.
Do not commit .env or DATABASE_URL.
users.password_hash is nullable so Google OAuth users can exist without a password.