Strangeflix

Web app for browsing and reading public-domain horror books (starting with Lovecraft). UI in English.

Stack

• Next.js 16 (App Router) + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS v4
• shadcn/ui (Base UI + Radix-style primitives)
• Prisma 7 + PostgreSQL + @prisma/adapter-pg + pg
  (SQLite was removed — for a database-driven catalog on Vercel you need hosted Postgres: Neon, Supabase, etc.)
• No DATABASE_URL / POSTGRES_*: the app uses a static catalog (src/data/static-catalog.ts) plus content/books/*.txt — Vercel deploy works from the repo alone (no DB).

Setup

1. PostgreSQL running locally (Docker example):

   docker run --name strangeflix-pg -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -e POSTGRES_DB=strangeflix -p 5432:5432 -d postgres:16

2. Env & DB

   npm install
   cp .env.example .env
   # edit DATABASE_URL if needed
   npx prisma migrate dev
   npm run db:seed
   npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Deploy (Vercel)

Files only (no database) — recommended if you skip Postgres

1. Connect the Git repo to Vercel and deploy. Do not add DATABASE_URL / POSTGRES_* — the catalog comes from src/data/static-catalog.ts and content/books/*.txt.
2. Canonical URL (Open Graph, sitemap): you usually need no Environment Variables. getSiteUrl() uses VERCEL_URL, which Vercel sets automatically → https://<your-project>.vercel.app.
3. Optional: if you use a custom domain, add NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL = https://your-domain.com (Production + Preview if you want) so metadata and sitemap use that base instead of *.vercel.app.

Build: prisma generate → migrate script skips migrate deploy when no Postgres URL → next build.

With PostgreSQL (hosted DB)

1. Create a Neon (or Supabase) database and copy the connection string (sslmode=require where required).

2. In Vercel → Settings → Environment Variables, add one Postgres URL for Production (and Preview if needed): DATABASE_URL, POSTGRES_PRISMA_URL, POSTGRES_URL, or POSTGRES_URL_NON_POOLING (first defined wins).

3. Redeploy so prisma migrate deploy runs on build, then seed once:

   vercel env pull .env.production.local
   npx prisma db seed

   Or run seed from any machine with DATABASE_URL pointing at production.

4. Same canonical URL rules as above (VERCEL_URL by default; NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL for a custom domain).

FAQ: local Postgres vs Vercel

• Local DATABASE_URL (e.g. localhost) only works on your machine when you run npm run dev (or a local next start). Strangeflix reads that from .env.
• Vercel runs your app on servers in the cloud. Those servers cannot open a connection to localhost on your laptop. So the live site needs a hosted PostgreSQL (Neon, Supabase, Vercel Postgres, etc.) and the same connection string copied into Vercel → Environment Variables (DATABASE_URL or often POSTGRES_URL / POSTGRES_PRISMA_URL from the provider).
• Files-only (no Postgres on Vercel): you don’t need DATABASE_URL; keep static-catalog and content/books in sync with prisma/seed.ts when adding titles.
• After the first deploy with that variable, migrations should run on build; then run prisma db seed once against the hosted database (not only your local DB), e.g. vercel env pull then npx prisma db seed.

Database

Models: Author, Book, BookChapter (see prisma/schema.prisma).
Use npm run db:studio to inspect data.

Scripts

Script	Description
npm run dev	Development server
npm run build	Production build (includes migrate deploy)
npm run db:generate	Regenerate Prisma client
npm run db:migrate	Create/apply migrations (migrate dev)
npm run db:studio	Prisma Studio
npm run db:seed	Seed authors & books
npm run content:dunwich	Regenerate Dunwich text from Wikisource (optional; needs network or WIKISOURCE_DUMP path)