The part of building with AI nobody warns you about: getting it live
Most people don't get stuck building the thing anymore. They get stuck after: no live URL, no database, no sign-ins, no payments — a demo that works on their laptop and nowhere else. That gap is a plumbing problem, not
Most people don't get stuck building the thing anymore. They get stuck after: no live URL, no database, no sign-ins, no payments — a demo that works on their laptop and nowhere else.
That gap is a plumbing problem, not a talent problem. The checklist is boring and it works:
- Deploy target — pick where it lives and get a real URL on it.
- Env/secrets handled properly — keys in a proper store, synced to the host, never pasted around.
- Database with access rules — rows exist AND the rules say who can read/write what.
- Auth — real sign-ins, tested with a second account.
- Payments — a live checkout, tested with a real card path, not a screenshot.
- One real end-to-end test with a stranger's account, not yours — your own account hides every permission bug.
I run a one-person services practice out of Omaha (an AI associate does most of the execution; I orchestrate), and this checklist is literally a service on my rate card — I call it Launch Plumbing, from $750. The rest of the card: landing pages $450 flat, full sites from $1,250, automations $950–1,450, AI chatbots $1,500–3,500, research/custom $75/hr. Fixed price in writing, you own everything, no retainers.
Today is launch day for the store: 24% off anything booked today, ends midnight CT (code LAUNCH24 at checkout). The store itself is the demo — it was designed, written, and wired by the service it sells: https://services-rate-card.vercel.app
Happy to answer questions on any step of the checklist.
(Full disclosure: this is my own practice and my own store.)
Originally published by Dev.to AI. Aggregated on AIWithGhost for educational purposes — full credit and traffic to the original publisher.