Compared to plain Next.js

See what changes when your Next.js App Router code runs on Stardeck: the runtime, the data layer, auth, deploys and who keeps the app current.

A Stardeck app is stock Next.js: App Router, React Server Components, page.tsx, route.ts, layout.tsx, Tailwind. Nothing proprietary replaces the framework, and your React is portable.

What differs is where requests are decided, where data lives, who holds credentials and who keeps the app current.

At a glance

On your own Next.js app	On Graviton	Why
Choose a host and run `deploy`	Merge a pull request into `main`, then publish	Standard size builds to a Cloudflare Worker; Large builds a Node.js server with more memory
Pick a runtime per route	Worker runtime at Standard size	No Node.js runtime at Standard, which is also why `middleware.ts` must not be renamed to `proxy.ts`
Provision Postgres, pick an ORM, own migrations	Data Store + `data-store-sdk` (Kysely)	Schema changes are platform operations or Module ledger entries; the driver is HTTP, so no interactive transactions
Add NextAuth, Clerk, or roll your own	`project-auth`	Sign-in, RBAC, SSO and admin/user dashboards ship with it; visibility is enforced at the edge
Guard routes in middleware	Guard in the layout and in each API handler	Host classification, tenant lookup and public/internal gating happen before your code; API paths are never edge-gated
`vercel cron` or a cron container	`scheduling-sdk`	The platform calls your deployment on a schedule
Wire Stripe, an email provider, an S3 bucket	`payments-sdk`, `email-sdk`, storage-type Data Store	The platform holds credentials; every call is HMAC-signed by the SDK
Rely on ISR and the data cache	Treat rendering as per-request; cache deliberately	No incremental cache at Standard size. See Constraints
Edit `next.config.ts` freely	Ask Stardeck for config changes	Updates edit that file
One project per audience: site, admin, POS	Surfaces in one repo	Each gets its own hostname, icon and install identity from one deploy
Own your dependency and framework upgrades	Updates move the app forward	Each released version is merged into your repo like any Git merge
`.env.local` you maintain	`npm run env:pull` from the platform	Secrets are stored and decrypted by the platform, per environment
Webhooks to `localhost` via a tunnel	Exercise inbound traffic in the sandbox	Nothing inbound is routed to a local dev server, by design

What this buys and what it costs

flowchart TB
    subgraph Y["What you stop owning"]
        Y1["Infrastructure and credentials"]
        Y2["Auth, RBAC and the sign-in surface"]
        Y3["Framework and dependency upgrades"]
        Y4["Hostnames, TLS and PWA identity per audience"]
    end
    subgraph C["What you accept"]
        C1["Worker limits at Standard size, including a 10 MiB bundle"]
        C2["No interactive database transactions"]
        C3["Some files and operations are platform-owned"]
        C4["Deploys go through the platform, not your CI"]
    end
    Y --> V["One codebase, many audiences,<br/>that keeps moving forward"]
    C --> V

Each constraint is enforced by something you can see: a lint rule, a build failure or a file header.

New apps start from a shared foundation and don't run platform migrations. When Stardeck releases a new version, the app shows Update available and you merge it, in-product or locally. The update brings new SDK versions, config changes and a new AGENTS.md.

Stay on the SDK surface. Code that uses an SDK's documented API survives updates. Code that reaches around it (hand-built platform requests, copies of generated files) is what conflicts or breaks.
Don't edit AGENTS.md. The app keeps Stardeck's copy, and updates change it. Put project conventions in a separate file.

Still Next.js

Things that work exactly as you expect, with no Stardeck-specific wrapper: the App Router and route groups, Server Components and Server Actions, layout.tsx composition, streaming, next/image (against configured hosts), Tailwind, react-hook-form, TanStack Query, Zod, Playwright and Vitest.

If a Next.js pattern is not listed on the Constraints page as restricted, assume it works.

At a glanceCopy Anchor Link

What this buys and what it costsCopy Anchor Link

UpdatesCopy Anchor Link

Still Next.jsCopy Anchor Link

On this page

At a glance

What this buys and what it costs

Updates

Still Next.js