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Fieldnotes

Notes from actually building this stuff.

Honest write-ups on the decisions, costs, and trade-offs of building infrastructure, automation, and AI for real businesses, especially in markets where price and connectivity aren't an afterthought. No tutorials. The parts nobody writes about until they've made the wrong call first.

# monthly cost comparison
zapier · $200–600/mo
n8n + postgres · <$15/mo
 
$ docker compose up -d
postgres up
n8n up · webhooks live
caddy up · tls managed
stack ready · €4.51/mo box
Featured · Automation · SMBs

Why we chose n8n + Postgres over Zapier for African SMBs

A short field note on building automation infrastructure that survives African price points, intermittent connectivity, and the people who built it. The architecture decisions, the real costs, and the trade-offs nobody admits.

By Solomon Gana12 May 20269 min read
Read the note →
Infrastructure

What a Hetzner + Proxmox setup actually costs to run

The real monthly numbers behind self-hosting for small teams, including the parts that don't show up until month three.

Coming soon
Applied AI

The boring parts of an AI agent that everyone skips

Auth, audit trails, evals, and graceful handoff to a human. Why they matter more than the model you pick.

Coming soon
Handover

Documenting a system so you never get the 2am call

What goes in a runbook, what goes in the architecture doc, and why "documented to dullness" is a feature.

Coming soon