Substack

Build me a focused email newsletters and creator publishing workflow for the personal core of Substack. Requirements:

- Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Amazon SES. Model subscribers, consent records, campaigns, delivery attempts, and suppression state; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
- Paid product context: Publish posts and send email from a self-owned list without recreating discovery or payments. Build only this DIY scope: Collect subscribers on a self-owned list, compose and send compliant email posts, publish a web archive, and report basic delivery and click events without recreating discovery or payments.
- Implement subscriber import, double opt-in, unsubscribe, suppression, tags, and consent timestamps.
- Create a Markdown campaign editor with HTML and plain-text previews.
- Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches. Process delivery, bounce, complaint, open, and click webhooks without logging message content. Publish a simple issue archive and subscriber preference page.
- Use a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views. Required input or access: Amazon SES account; verified sending domain. Keep credentials in .env.
- Recovery: Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches.
- Acceptance: with one labelled sample, show the input, saved intermediate state, and exported result; verify this invariant: Unsubscribed or bounced addresses must stay suppressed; retrying an ambiguous provider response cannot silently send twice.
- Out of scope: reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity; inbox-placement expertise. Keep this a personal, inspectable workflow.
- Include a README with setup, a sample input, required keys or permissions, data location, and the supported scope.

# AGENTS.md — Build guide for Substack

## Project scope
Collect subscribers on a self-owned list, compose and send compliant email posts, publish a web archive, and report basic delivery and click events without recreating discovery or payments.

Catalogue verdict: no. A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Substack, publish posts and send email from a self-owned list without recreating discovery or payments. The hard boundary is reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity, plus deliverability, growth network, and integrations.
Use the implementation prompt below to define the deliverable. Complete each phase's acceptance checks before extending the scope.

## Working agreement
- Inspect the repository and its existing instructions before choosing paths, dependencies or commands. Keep one coherent stack and explain changes to the proposed architecture.
- Plan a vertical slice that accepts a real input and produces the useful output described below. Persist only the state the prompt calls for; respect memory-only and upstream-managed workflows. Use fixtures only when they are clearly labelled.
- After scaffolding, document the actual install, development, check and build commands in README and keep them synchronized with the package or project manifest. Do not report commands as successful unless they ran.
- Work in small steps. At handoff, list implemented flows, checks actually performed, remaining blockers, and any credentials or provider setup the owner must supply.
- Do not publish, spend money, contact customers, delete source data or run irreversible migrations without the project owner's authorization.

## Prerequisites
- Amazon SES account
- verified sending domain
- PostgreSQL
- public HTTPS deploy target
- DNS access

## Stack and architecture
- Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Amazon SES.
- Model subscribers, consent records, campaigns, delivery attempts, and suppression state; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
- Interface for this email newsletters and creator publishing workflow: a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views.

## Security and data integrity
- Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches.
- Keep API keys and OAuth secrets in .env; redact them from logs, generated files, and error responses.
- State the practical limit: reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity.

## Agent implementation rules
- Project rule, data: Model subscribers, consent records, campaigns, delivery attempts, and suppression state; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
- Project rule, behavior: Implement subscriber import, double opt-in, unsubscribe, suppression, tags, and consent timestamps.
- Project rule, recovery: Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches.

## Optional agent skills and references
No installable skill is listed for this guide; use the project rules and the stack documentation.

Read the linked SKILL.md and its dependencies before adding a skill. Select only the skills matching this project's runtime and task; their documentation does not supply API access, credentials or approval to perform external actions. Pin the reviewed revision where the tool supports it. Follow the chosen agent's documented project-level installation mechanism.

## Distribution ideas
These are optional planning notes. Obtain the owner's approval before publishing or contacting anyone.
- Demonstrate this email newsletters and creator publishing operation with sample or user-owned data: Implement subscriber import, double opt-in, unsubscribe, suppression, tags, and consent timestamps.
- Show a concrete result or export: Add test sends, seed-list checks, DNS setup guidance, exports, and backups.
- State the practical limit: reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity.

## Engineering roadmap
1. Phase 1, architecture and data: Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Amazon SES. Model subscribers, consent records, campaigns, delivery attempts, and suppression state; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
2. Phase 2, implement: Implement subscriber import, double opt-in, unsubscribe, suppression, tags, and consent timestamps.
3. Phase 3, implement: Create a Markdown campaign editor with HTML and plain-text previews.
4. Phase 4, review and output: Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches. Add test sends, seed-list checks, DNS setup guidance, exports, and backups.
5. Phase 5, recovery and acceptance: Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches. Verify this invariant with a saved fixture: Unsubscribed or bounced addresses must stay suppressed; retrying an ambiguous provider response cannot silently send twice. State the practical limit: reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity.

## Paid-product capabilities outside this build
- reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity
- inbox-placement expertise
- advanced automations
- commerce integrations
- recommendation and ad networks

## Implementation prompt
Build me a focused email newsletters and creator publishing workflow for the personal core of Substack. Requirements:

- Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Amazon SES. Model subscribers, consent records, campaigns, delivery attempts, and suppression state; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
- Paid product context: Publish posts and send email from a self-owned list without recreating discovery or payments. Build only this DIY scope: Collect subscribers on a self-owned list, compose and send compliant email posts, publish a web archive, and report basic delivery and click events without recreating discovery or payments.
- Implement subscriber import, double opt-in, unsubscribe, suppression, tags, and consent timestamps.
- Create a Markdown campaign editor with HTML and plain-text previews.
- Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches. Process delivery, bounce, complaint, open, and click webhooks without logging message content. Publish a simple issue archive and subscriber preference page.
- Use a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views. Required input or access: Amazon SES account; verified sending domain. Keep credentials in .env.
- Recovery: Queue sends through SES with retries, rate limits, idempotency, and resumable batches.
- Acceptance: with one labelled sample, show the input, saved intermediate state, and exported result; verify this invariant: Unsubscribed or bounced addresses must stay suppressed; retrying an ambiguous provider response cannot silently send twice.
- Out of scope: reader network, recommendations, app distribution, payments, and brand familiarity; inbox-placement expertise. Keep this a personal, inspectable workflow.
- Include a README with setup, a sample input, required keys or permissions, data location, and the supported scope.

## Completion evidence
Demonstrate the prompt's acceptance scenarios against the scoped workflow. Include setup from a clean checkout and failure recovery. Check persistence across restart and export/restore only for the state the prompt says to store; for memory-only tools, confirm that temporary content is discarded as specified. Record actual results and remaining limitations. A detailed plan alone does not establish a working replacement.