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🚀 SaaS Development Workflow Planning

🌟 Introduction

I’ve been diving deeper into how a SaaS company structures its development workflow.
It’s becoming clear that proper environments (local, staging, production) and CI/CD pipelines are essential.
Now I’m at the stage of figuring out where to begin and how to connect the pieces together.

🏗️ Core Structure of a SaaS Project

Each component of the software (front-end, admin dashboard, mobile app, etc.) should have:

  • Development database & project files 🛠️
  • Staging database & project files 🧪
  • Production database & project files ✅

🌐 Components of the System

🔹 Front-end (Marketing & Support)

  • Landing pages 🌍
  • Blog posts 📝
  • Support docs 📚
  • Privacy policy & legal pages ⚖️
  • Optional: Paid ticketing systems 🎟️, support communities 👥

🔹 Web Application

  • Connects to databases (local, staging, production)
  • Handles user interaction and core product logic

🔹 Admin Dashboard

  • Web-based, likely connected to the same databases
  • Used for monitoring, management, and internal workflows

🔹 Mobile App

  • Tied into the same database & authentication system

🔑 Starting Point (Implementation Plan)

I realized I should start local, with the database setup.

  1. Local Database Setup 💻

    • Create local DB
    • Configure environment variables in monorepo
    • Store in /config folder

  2. Supabase Projects 🐘

    • Create three DBs:
      • Local (dev)
      • Staging
      • Production

  3. Authentication 🔐

    • Supabase auth enabled for all three environments
    • Shared across web app, admin dashboard, and mobile app

  4. Data Model (Drizzle ORM) 🌱

    • Build consistent schema
    • Ensure DB swap works between environments

⚙️ Deployment & CI/CD Challenges

I need to better understand:

  • Vercel auto-deployments

    • Right now: pushing changes to GitHub = instant build
    • Issue: How to distinguish staging vs. production builds?

  • GitHub Actions 🤖

    • What they are
    • How they manage staging vs. production deployments
    • How they fit into a CI/CD pipeline

  • Testing Workflow 🧪

    • What testing should happen in staging
    • How to decide when to push to production

📝 Current Roadblocks

  • ❓ How to configure GitHub Actions for staging & production
  • ❓ How deployment workflow differs from Vercel’s current auto-builds
  • ❓ How CI/CD pipeline is structured & managed

🔮 Next Steps

  1. ✅ Create and configure three Supabase databases (local, staging, production).
  2. ✅ Store and manage environment variables properly in monorepo.
  3. ✅ Configure web app, admin dashboard, and mobile app to connect to correct DB per environment.
  4. 🔍 Research GitHub Actions & CI/CD pipelines for staging vs. production workflows.
  5. 🔍 Understand how testing fits into staging before production release.

🎯 Conclusion

I’ve mapped out the overall SaaS project structure and now see the importance of staging, production, and local databases as the backbone.
The biggest unknowns remain around deployment workflows, CI/CD, and GitHub Actions.
For now, the best move is to start small—set up the databases and environment configs—and then gradually solve the deployment challenges.

👉 Do you want me to also make a color-coded diagram/flowchart (like an ERD-style or system architecture map) to visually show the workflow of local → staging → production?

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