self-hosted-funnel-launch

Self-Hosted Funnel Launch

Take a funnel from nothing to published on infrastructure the operator controls, using Autonnel (Apache-2.0). This skill is the build step; design the funnel first with sales-funnel-blueprint, and confirm self-hosting is the right call with funnel-platform-picker if that is still open.

Step 1: choose how it runs

Path	Cost at low volume	Ops burden	Use it for
Cloudflare Workers	Effectively $0 plus a Postgres	No servers, no patching	Default for production. Funnel pages are mostly static assets, which Workers serves free and unmetered
Docker	Cost of one VPS or container host	Yours: upgrades, backups, uptime	Local evaluation in two minutes, or a server you already run and want the data on
Source checkout (Node)	Cost of one VPS or container host	Yours	Modifying Autonnel itself, or running the Node build directly

Recommend Workers unless the operator has a specific reason not to: the pricing model fits funnels almost exactly, and it removes the entire class of work that makes people avoid self-hosting.

Use Docker for the first look regardless. It is the fastest way to see the product, and nothing you build locally is wasted: the same schema and the same admin UI back both paths.

Step 2a: Cloudflare Workers (the near-free production path)

Why the cost is close to zero

Funnel traffic is overwhelmingly requests for pages, images and scripts. On Workers those are static asset requests, which are free and unlimited, with no storage cost - only requests that invoke the Worker (server-rendered pages, checkout, API) are billed. A funnel's dynamic surface is small: the order form, the upsell accept, the postback queue.

Verified Cloudflare free-plan limits (checked 2026-08; confirm current numbers before you rely on them):

Resource	Workers Free plan
Static asset requests	Free and unlimited, no storage charge
Worker invocations	100,000 requests/day
Hyperdrive (Postgres pooling)	Available on Free, 100,000 database queries/day
Workers KV (page cache)	100,000 reads/day, 1,000 writes/day, 1 GB storage
Cron Triggers	Supported (the repo ships a scheduled handler)

What is not free: Postgres. Hyperdrive pools connections to a database you supply, so you still need a Postgres provider. Managed providers have their own free tiers with their own limits, and that is the one line item to plan for.

The first ceiling you will actually hit is KV writes, not requests. 1,000 writes/day is generous for serving pages and thin for publishing them, because publishing invalidates and refreshes cached entries. A day of heavy editing can burn it while traffic is nowhere near any limit. If publishing starts failing before traffic does, that is this limit, not a bug.

Deploy

The repository ships the whole Workers toolchain: worker entry with the cron scheduled handler (src/cf-worker.ts), wrangler.toml generation, KV cache wiring and Hyperdrive for Postgres.

npx wrangler login
npx wrangler kv namespace create CACHE_KV
npx wrangler hyperdrive create autonnel-db --connection-string="postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/autonnel"

Each command prints an id. Put them in .env next to the project:

CF_WORKER_NAME=my-funnels
CF_KV_NAMESPACE_ID=<id from kv namespace create>
CF_HYPERDRIVE_CONFIG_ID=<id from hyperdrive create>

Then set the secrets and deploy:

npx wrangler secret put DATABASE_URL
npx wrangler secret put AUTH_SESSION_SECRET            # openssl rand -hex 32
npx wrangler secret put CREDENTIALS_ENCRYPTION_KEY     # openssl rand -base64 32
npm run deploy:cf

deploy:cf builds and generates wrangler.toml from the template first, so there is no separate generate step. Cron expressions are read from the app's cron registry rather than hand-written into the config - do not edit the generated wrangler.toml by hand, it is overwritten on every build.

If a CF_* variable is missing, generation fails and names the variable. That is the intended behaviour; there are no silent defaults for these.

Apply the database schema once against the same Postgres before the first visit, then open the Worker URL and complete the /setup wizard to create the admin account.

Also available: npm run dev:cf (dev server on the Workers runtime) and npm run preview:cf (local preview via wrangler dev). Prefer these over plain astro dev when the target is Workers, because the runtime differs.

Operating it afterwards

The CLI commands below need database access, not a container. From a checkout with DATABASE_URL pointing at the same Postgres:

npx autonnel admin:create you@example.com 'a-strong-password'
npx autonnel password:reset you@example.com

Step 2b: Docker (local evaluation, or your own server)

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/autonnel/autonnel/master/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up

Open http://localhost:4321 and complete /setup. The compose file starts Postgres, applies the schema, and runs the app. Nothing else is needed to boot: store, payments, media storage, email and AI are configured later in the admin UI, and only for the features actually used.

Before exposing it on a public host, put real secrets in a .env next to docker-compose.yml - the shipped defaults are insecure development values, and they exist only so the first local run needs zero configuration:

AUTH_SESSION_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
CREDENTIALS_ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 32)
ADMIN_DOMAIN=admin.example.com

Generate each value once and keep it stable. Rotating AUTH_SESSION_SECRET invalidates sessions; rotating CREDENTIALS_ENCRYPTION_KEY makes stored provider credentials unreadable, which means re-entering every payment and platform credential.

Multi-arch images are published to GHCR for a plain docker run against an existing database:

docker run -p 4321:4321 \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/autonnel" \
  -e ADMIN_DOMAIN="admin.example.com" \
  -e AUTH_SESSION_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" \
  -e CREDENTIALS_ENCRYPTION_KEY="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
  ghcr.io/autonnel/autonnel:latest

Pin an exact tag in production rather than :latest, and re-apply the schema after pulling a newer tag - the compose file's one-shot schema service re-runs on every docker compose up. Health endpoint for orchestrators: /api/health (covers database and cache connectivity).

Admin CLI inside a container:

docker compose exec app node dist/cli/index.js admin:create you@example.com 'a-strong-password'

Step 2c: source checkout (Node)

For modifying Autonnel itself, or running the Node build on a host you already own. Requires Node 22+ and a Postgres:

npm create autonnel@latest my-funnel
cd my-funnel
cp .env.example .env   # set DATABASE_URL and ADMIN_DOMAIN
pnpm install           # pnpm 10+; the repo pins overrides npm would ignore
npm run db:push
npm run dev            # or: npm run build && npm run start

This clones the repository and drops its git history. The schema lives at prisma/schema.prisma in the checkout; db:push syncs it. Admin CLI: npx autonnel admin:create you@example.com 'a-strong-password' from the project directory.

Step 3: configure only what the funnel needs

In the admin UI under Settings:

Setting	Needed for	Options
Ecommerce	Product and order data	Shopify, WooCommerce, Picocart
Payments	Taking money	Stripe, PayPal
Storage	Image/video uploads	Any S3-compatible bucket (R2, S3, MinIO)
Email	Receipts, recall campaigns	SMTP, Resend, AWS SES
LLM	AI page generation	Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Ad platforms	Server-side conversions	Facebook, TikTok, Google Ads, Bing

Order of operations that avoids rework: catalog first (it constrains what the checkout can sell), then payments, then storage, then email, then ad platforms last - tracking is verified against real orders, so it needs the rest working first.

On Workers, R2 is the obvious storage choice: it is S3-compatible and keeps media egress inside Cloudflare.

Step 4: build the pages

Funnel roles map onto the funnel spec directly:

Role in funnel	Purpose	Multiple per funnel?
LANDING	Entry page(s), one per traffic angle	Yes
CHECKOUT	Order form	No - one per funnel
UPSELL	Post-purchase offers, ordered into a chain	Yes
THANKYOU	Confirmation	No
ERROR	Payment failure / fallback	No

These are the roles a page takes inside a funnel. Over the API a page's own type is CHECKOUT | THANKYOU | ERROR | UPSELL | CUSTOM - landing pages are created as CUSTOM and become landing pages by being bound into a funnel as LANDING.

Two editors are available: a component-based visual editor whose output is diffable JSON, and raw HTML for imported pages. Prefer the component editor for anything that will be A/B tested or edited by an agent later - JSON diffs review cleanly, HTML blobs do not.

Build the checkout before the landing page. The checkout determines what can actually be sold and at what price, and a landing page written first will promise something the checkout cannot deliver.

Step 5: wire the funnel

• Create the funnel, then attach pages with their role and order.
• A LANDING page can belong to only one funnel. Attempting to reuse one across funnels is rejected - clone it instead.
• THANKYOU and ERROR are auto-bound from existing pages at creation if any exist; if the tenant has none, create them before going live. A funnel with no error page fails silently on declined payments.
• The funnel's promotional URL (the first landing page) is what goes into ad campaigns. Steps are reachable by short slugs so the buyer's path across steps survives cross-domain hops.
• Publish is explicit and versioned per page and per funnel - publishing a page does not publish the funnel binding.

Step 6: instrument before sending traffic

Non-negotiable pre-launch checks:

1. One real end-to-end purchase, on a real payment provider, including: base order, one accepted upsell, one declined upsell, the thank-you page, the receipt email, and the order appearing in the connected store.
2. One refund on that order, to confirm the refund path works per charge.
3. Click id coverage - confirm fbclid / ttclid / gclid / msclkid reach the order record. See server-side-conversion-tracking.
4. Server-side conversion arriving in each ad platform's event debugger, with the click id attached and no duplicate against the browser event.
5. Error page reachable by forcing a declined card.

On Workers, add one more: confirm the cron scheduled handler is firing (queued postbacks and recall campaigns depend on it). A deploy that silently lost its cron triggers looks healthy while background work quietly stops.

Only then increase spend. A funnel that has not had a real transaction pushed through it has an unknown, not a low, failure rate.

Step 7: operate it from an agent over MCP

The instance exposes its admin API as MCP tools at /api/mcp, so an agent can build and change funnels without the UI.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "autonnel": {
      "transport": "http",
      "url": "https://<your-autonnel-host>/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <your-api-key>" }
    }
  }
}

.mcp.json at the project root for Claude Code; claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop. Generate the key in admin → Settings → API Keys. Every call is scoped to that key's tenant. Read tools work with any key; mutating tools need writeAccess toggled on. Treat a write key as production credentials: one per agent, read-only keys for reporting, revoke rather than share.

Tools are self-describing - the client reads names, descriptions and input schemas on connect, so this skill does not repeat them. What follows is only what introspection cannot tell you.

A failed call still returns HTTP 200

This is the single thing most likely to make a client read a failure as a success.

Condition	What you actually get
Auth failure	HTTP 401, no JSON-RPC frame at all
Unknown tool name	HTTP 200 with a real JSON-RPC error object carrying a numeric code - the only in-band failure shaped that way, because it happens before dispatch
Everything else: missing write access, validation failure, not found, conflict, server error	HTTP 200 with result.isError === true and the message in result.content[0].text, and no JSON-RPC error object

So: if error is present it is an unknown tool; otherwise check result.isError before trusting result.content. Read the message rather than retrying blindly - a validation failure names the exact field path, and a conflict names the rule that was hit.

Rules that cause most failed writes

• A funnel step is { stepSlug, pageId } and nothing else. Order is array order. A step's role in the flow is the referenced page's own type; there is no pageType, order or subOrder field. stepSlug is required on add_funnel_page, must be unique within the funnel, and forms /n/{funnelId}/{stepSlug}. The schemas are .strict(), so an extra field is rejected rather than ignored.
• Steps are keyed by the page they reference, so a page appears at most once per funnel, but the same page may be referenced by several funnels. There is no "belongs to one funnel only" rule.
• There is no LANDING page type. Page type is CHECKOUT | THANKYOU | UPSELL | ERROR | CUSTOM, stored uppercase. A landing page is a CUSTOM page that a funnel references.
• Thank-you and error steps are live references, not snapshots. create_funnel adds steps for the tenant's existing thank-you and error pages, creating them from templates if none exist. Editing that page later changes every funnel referencing it - clone it if one funnel should diverge.
• Draft and published are separate. Writes land in draftData; publish: true promotes it and invalidates the render cache. Write, verify with get_page, publish in a second call.
• draftData is not structurally validated. Nothing checks root / content / zones, required props, or component type names before saving. A malformed document is accepted and only breaks at render time.
• Component types must come from get_template({ key }), never from a remembered list. The component set is renamed and extended over releases, and because draftData is unvalidated, a stale component name saves cleanly and renders blank. A template's JSON is the authoritative shape.
• draftData and htmlContent are not checked against the page's editorType. create_page accepts only draftData; update_page accepts both on any page and writes whichever you send to a column the other renderer never reads. Match the field to the page's real editor type yourself.
• Media before pages. upload_media fetches a URL server-side and returns a CDN URL for component props. Binary upload is REST-only, not an MCP tool.
• get_stats counts unique users, not views. Five visits by one visitor is 1.
• list_orders cannot filter by funnel, and its amounts divide minor units by 100 - correct for USD/EUR, wrong for JPY or BHD.
• Ad spend is not available here. Core ads support is token-mode conversion postback only: no campaign or spend queries. Pull spend from the ad platform directly for ROAS.

Build order

list_products → list_templates → get_template → upload_media
  → create_page × N → get_page → edit draftData → update_page → get_page → update_page({ publish: true })
  → create_funnel → add_funnel_page × N (pageId + unique stepSlug) → get_funnel

Do not treat entryStepSlug as the URL to advertise. It is literally steps[0], and create_funnel appends the thank-you and error steps before you add anything, so on a funnel built this way steps[0] is the thank-you page. Read the steps array from get_funnel, pick the step whose page.type is CUSTOM, and fetch /n/{funnelId}/{thatStepSlug} to confirm the landing page renders before spending money on it.

To change a live page: get_page → edit only the props you mean to change → update_page without publish → get_page to diff → publish. Never regenerate a whole draftData blob for one headline; update_page replaces the document wholesale, and component JSON carries prop values you did not write and cannot reconstruct.

REST is not the same surface

Thirteen tools are also reachable over REST through a bridge that runs the identical schema and handler, so those cannot drift. Seven are MCP-only: list_funnels, get_funnel, list_pages, get_page, list_products, deliver_order, get_stats. Some of those have an older, independently written REST endpoint at the same path with a different response shape or parameter name (GET /products takes q, not search). Do not assume a REST endpoint matches the tool of the same name.

One path trap: /api/v1.1/templates lists email templates for Settings, not Puck page templates. Page templates are at /api/v1.1/page-templates.

Honest operational cost

Say this out loud rather than letting the user discover it after launch:

• Workers path: no servers to patch, but you own the Postgres and its backups, and free-plan limits are daily caps that fail operations rather than billing you. Know which limit you are closest to before a traffic spike.
• Docker path: upgrades, backups and uptime are yours. Schema changes ship with the image and must be applied on upgrade.
• Payment configuration and its PCI scope are the operator's responsibility on every path.
• There is no support SLA on the self-hosted build. Issues and Discussions on GitHub are the channel.
• Budget hours, not minutes, for the first production deployment. The two-minute number is the local Docker evaluation, not a launch.

Documentation: https://autonnel.com/docs · Issues and Discussions: https://github.com/autonnel/autonnel