Field notes
Insights
Decision-stage notes for operators and senior engineers — migration timelines, stack comparisons, integration patterns, and what we ship in production.
Medusa · Payload · Next.js · Postgres · Stripe · Claude — written for the buyer and the engineer in the same room.
Archive
13- 02
Catalog Enrichment on Medusa with Claude: The Import-Time Pipeline We Ship for 2,000+ SKU Brands
Bolting AI onto live product pages burns trust by week three. Here is the import-time enrichment pipeline we wire into Medusa with Claude, structured outputs, and a Payload approval queue — including token cost per 1,000 SKUs and the regressions it prevents.
30 May 2026 · AI Automation
30 May 2026AI Automation - 03
Four AI Workflows We Wire Into Payload for Editorial Teams (and the One We Refuse to Ship)
Content teams keep asking us to 'add AI to the CMS.' That framing buys nothing. Here are the four Payload automations that actually move editorial velocity — and the one we refuse to ship, with the wiring shape and token math for a team publishing 40 articles a month.
26 May 2026 · AI Automation
26 May 2026AI Automation - 04
GDPR + Payload: The Field-Level Pattern That Passes a Data Protection Audit
The field-level encryption, automated deletion hooks, and audit trail patterns that make Payload CMS applications survive a data protection officer's review — with the specific schema choices that turn right-to-be-forgotten requests into one-line operations.
22 May 2026 · Production Hardening
22 May 2026Production Hardening - 05
Stripe Webhook → Postgres Ledger: The 50-Line Pattern That Survives an Audit
Every Series B audit asks the same question about your payment data: can you prove this transaction happened, when it happened, and that you recorded it exactly once? Here's the webhook-to-ledger pattern that passes.
19 May 2026 · Integration Patterns
19 May 2026Integration Patterns - 06
Custom Shipping Rules in Medusa: The Multi-Carrier Pattern That Scales Past Flat-Rate
When D2C brands outgrow flat-rate shipping, they need inventory-aware location routing, weight-based carrier selection, and real-time rate shopping. Here's the Medusa shipping service pattern that handles complex fulfillment rules without losing sales to API timeouts.
16 May 2026 · Medusa Engineering
16 May 2026Medusa Engineering - 07
Payload Hooks That Prevent Production Fires: The 8 We Ship on Every Project
The specific Payload hook patterns we implement on every project to prevent stale draft caches, orphaned relationships, and broken webhook deliveries before they reach production.
14 May 2026 · Payload Engineering
14 May 2026Payload Engineering - 08
Postgres Connection Pooling on Serverless: The PgBouncer vs Supabase vs Neon Reality Check
Why 100 concurrent Vercel functions kill your database, and the production patterns that scale to 10K connections without breaking your budget.
12 May 2026 · Postgres Patterns
12 May 2026Postgres Patterns - 09
Next.js Server Actions + Payload Local API: The 200-Line Pattern That Replaces tRPC
How to wire Next.js Server Actions directly to Payload's Local API for type-safe mutations, eliminating the need for tRPC or external API routes in content-heavy applications.
12 May 2026 · Integration Patterns
12 May 2026Integration Patterns - 10
Payload Blocks vs Collections: The Content Architecture Decision That Breaks at 1,000 Articles
When to model content as reusable blocks vs separate collections in Payload CMS — with real schema examples and performance implications for content teams publishing at scale.
12 May 2026 · Payload Engineering
12 May 2026Payload Engineering - 11
Stripe vs Adyen vs Mollie for EU D2C: The €500k Revenue Breakpoint (and Hidden Costs)
Payment processor economics shift dramatically at €500k annual volume in Europe. Stripe's simplicity costs 0.3-0.8% more than Adyen, but Adyen's complexity tax hits smaller teams hard. Real-world fees, integration weeks, and revenue thresholds where switching pays back.
12 May 2026 · Vendor Choice
12 May 2026Vendor Choice - 12
AI Search on Medusa: When It Beats Algolia (and the $4k/Month Reality Check)
Our token economics breakdown for AI-powered search on Medusa JS: when semantic search justifies $4k/month in OpenAI costs vs $400/month Algolia, and the hybrid approach that cuts spend 60% while improving long-tail conversion 23%.
12 May 2026 · AI Rollout
12 May 2026AI Rollout - 13
Payload vs Sanity for Content Teams: Why We Switched (and the 3-Month Cost Breakdown)
Content teams publishing 20+ articles monthly hit workflow friction with Sanity Studio that Payload's admin eliminates. Here's what the switch costs and when it pays back.
12 May 2026 · Vendor Choice
12 May 2026Vendor Choice - 14
Shopify Plus to Medusa: What a 6-Week Migration Actually Costs (and When It Pays Back)
Break down the real financial math behind migrating a high-SKU D2C brand from Shopify Plus to Medusa — migration costs, ongoing savings, revenue impact, and the 18-month payback timeline most CFOs need to see.
12 May 2026 · Replatform
12 May 2026Replatform