⛓️‍💥 Unchained Next

Break the SaaS shackles. Deploy Next.js on your own terms.

Unchained Next is an open-source playbook and boilerplate designed to replace the "Vercel + Clerk + Neon" tax with a robust, self-hosted alternative. We provide configuration, manifests, and guides to run a modern full-stack app using industry-standard open-source tools.

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🚀 Why Unchained?

The "Modern Stack" has become a subscription trap. You shouldn't have to pay per-user fees just to authenticate users or store rows in a database.

Feature	The "SaaS" Way (Vercel/Clerk/Neon)	The Unchained Way
Hosting	Serverless Pricing (Unpredictable)	Docker / K8s (Fixed Cost VPS)
Auth	$ per Monthly Active User	NextAuth + Prisma (Free & Owned)
Database	Pricing based on compute hours	Standard PostgreSQL Container
Architecture	Scattered Microservices	Unified Monorepo (Turborepo)
Cost	Scales with traffic ($$$)	Scales with hardware ($)

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🛠️ Stack & Architecture

We stripped away the complexity of external auth services in favor of a pure architecture that you own completely, organized via Turborepo.

• Monorepo Tooling: Turborepo
• Application: Next.js (apps/web)
• Authentication: NextAuth.js with Credentials Provider
• ORM: Prisma (packages/db)
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Infrastructure: Docker Compose (Local) & Helm / Kubernetes (Production)

How it Works

1. User submits email/password to the Next.js API.
2. NextAuth verifies credentials against the database via Prisma.
3. Session tokens are issued without external dependencies.
4. All database schemas are managed centrally in packages/db.

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📂 Project Structure

unchained-next/
├── apps/
│   └── web/                  # The Main Next.js Application
├── packages/
│   ├── db/                   # Prisma Schema, Migrations & Client
│   ├── design-system/        # Shared UI Components
│   ├── eslint-config/        # Shared Linting Rules
│   └── typescript-config/    # Shared TS Configs
├── docker/                   # Docker related files
├── ops/
│   └── helm/                 # Helm Charts for Production Deployment
├── templates/                # Environment variable templates (.tpl)
├── setup-env.sh              # Script to generate .env files from templates
├── docker-compose.yml        # Local development
├── docker-compose.preprod.yml# Pre-production setup
├── LICENSE
├── package.json
├── pnpm-lock.yaml
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml
├── README.md
└── turbo.json

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⚡ Quick Start (Local Development)

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Node.js 18+ & pnpm

1. Clone the Repo

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/unchained-next.git
cd unchained-next

2. Generate Environment Files

chmod +x setup-env.sh
./setup-env.sh

This will generate .env files based on the templates in templates/.

3. Install Dependencies

pnpm install

4. Spin up Local Infrastructure

docker-compose up -d

5. Initialize Database

pnpm db:push

6. Run the App

pnpm dev

Visit http://localhost:3000 to see your app.

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🚢 Deploy to Kubernetes with Helm

For production, we use Helm charts stored in ops/helm.

cd ops/helm
helm install CHANGE_RELEASE_TAG ./unchained-web -f ./unchained-web/values.yaml

Replace CHANGE_RELEASE_TAG with your release name.

Note: values.yaml are generated automatically with the help of the /setup-env.sh script

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🗺️ Roadmap & Todos

Authentication

• Integrate WebAuthn (Passkeys) in NextAuth.js

Configuration & Standards

• Standardize IMAGE_NAME across .env templates and Helm charts.

Documentation

• Add documentation for creating imagePullSecrets in Kubernetes for private registries.
• Add documentation for creating ingress and cert-manager in Kubernetes.

Automation (CI/CD)

• GitHub Actions workflow for building, caching, and deploying Docker images.
• GitHub Actions workflow for automatically running prisma db push on production DB.

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🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License.

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🌟 Star this repo if you want to break free from SaaS subscriptions