community-rule/docs/relaunch-brief.md

CommunityRule relaunch

A short high-level summary of what's being built, what it replaces, and how the cutover will work.

What gets replaced

The existing CommunityRule Cloudron app currently hosts three things in one container:

• The static marketing site.
• The Express + MySQL backend (rule drafting, publishing, OTP sign-in).
• A Flask chatbot.

All three retire together when the new app goes live. The chatbot is not being migrated or replaced in this stage.

What the new app is

• A Next.js application with a Postgres database, packaged as a Cloudron app (Docker image + CloudronManifest.json).
• Uses Cloudron's postgresql + sendmail + localstorage addons.
• Cloudron's built-in container supervisor keeps it running.
• Sign-in changes from 4-digit email codes to email links ("magic link" authentication). Users click a link in their inbox instead of typing a code.
• One visible process, one port (3000), one health check (/api/health), ~512 MiB memory the same footprint as the existing app.

What does NOT carry over

• No user accounts. New sign-ins start fresh.
• No published rules from the old database. We'll count the existing rules table before cutover and decide whether to publish a read-only archive (CSV/JSON) somewhere for anyone looking for their old work.
• No chatbot.

How the cutover will work

Side-by-side, the legacy app keeps running untouched until the new one is verified.

1. Staging phase. New app installed at staging.communityrule.info (auto-provisioned by Cloudron). Legacy app at the apex is not touched. Quiet testing within MEDLab/stakeholders.
2. Cutover phase. When staging is green and we're ready, schedule a low-traffic window. During the window (roughly 5–15 minutes of apex downtime):
   • Take a final backup of the legacy app (Cloudron one-click).
   • Pull a copy of the legacy rules table if we decided to publish an archive.
   • Uninstall the legacy app at the apex communityrule.info.
   • Move the new app to the apex.
   • Smoke-test, confirm backups are on, done.
3. Post-cutover. Legacy backup retained ≥ 90 days as a safety net. Legacy source repos get README pointers to the new app and are archived.

Rollback plan during the window: restore the legacy backup to a scratch Cloudron slot and point DNS back. Realistic only if we discover something genuinely broken in the first few minutes.

Rough timeline

Roughly this order:

1. Code prep — small local change so the app reads Cloudron's injected CLOUDRON_* env vars natively. No infra impact.
2. Build and push the app image to a container registry.
3. Install at staging subdomain, smoke test, soft launch.
4. Apex cutover window — the brief downtime above.
5. Uninstall legacy, archive legacy repos.
6. Write the steady-state runbook based on what actually worked.

Staging should be ready to deploy in 1-2 weeks, and we can go from there.