Series Launching 1st May 2026
6 guides taking an AI-generated app from local development to self-hosted production. Docker, CI/CD, private registry, full sovereignty. New articles every 2 days from May 1st.
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From “It Works on My Machine” to Production
You’ve used AI to generate an app. Cursor, Copilot, Claude – the code works locally. Now what?
This series bridges the gap between vibe coding and real deployment. We’ll take an AI-generated application through the complete journey: containerization, private registry, CI/CD pipeline, and self-hosted deployment. No cloud vendor lock-in. Full sovereignty.
By the end, you’ll understand the deployment stack that startups and enterprises use – and you’ll own every piece of it.
Career Context: Developers who can also deploy are worth more. Understanding containers, CI/CD, and infrastructure turns a £45k developer role into a £60k full-stack or DevOps position. This series gives you the deployment skills that AI can’t (yet) replace.
The Series
Follow along with a real project. Each article builds on the last, taking our AI-generated app from local development to production deployment.
The Starting Point
Vibe Coding: Building an App in 24 Hours (Coming 1st May)
The AI-assisted development experience. What we’re building, how AI helped, and why “it works locally” isn’t good enough.
Making It Real
Cloud to Local: Setting Up Development (Coming 3rd May)
Local development environment that mirrors production. Docker Compose for dependencies, environment variables, and reproducible builds.
Containerizing Your Application (Coming 5th May)
From code to container. Dockerfile best practices, multi-stage builds, and images that are small, secure, and fast.
The Infrastructure
Running Your Own Container Registry (Coming 7th May)
Self-hosted registry for your images. No Docker Hub rate limits, full control, and the sovereignty to deploy without external dependencies.
CI/CD Pipeline: Automated Testing and Deployment (Coming 9th May)
Push code, run tests, deploy automatically. GitHub Actions or Gitea, webhooks, and the automation that makes deployment boring (in a good way).
Self-Hosted Deployment: The Final Step (Coming 11th May)
Production deployment on infrastructure you control. Reverse proxy, SSL, monitoring, and the operational patterns that keep it running.
What You’ll Learn
| Skill | Why It Matters | Enterprise Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Containerization | Consistent environments everywhere | Docker/Podman at every company |
| Private Registry | Own your deployment artifacts | Harbor, Artifactory, ECR |
| CI/CD | Automated quality and deployment | Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions |
| Reverse Proxy | SSL, routing, load balancing | nginx, Traefik, HAProxy |
| Monitoring | Know when things break | Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog |
Who This Series Is For
- Developers who “just want to deploy” – Learn the infrastructure side
- AI-assisted coders – Turn generated code into real applications
- Sysadmins curious about development – Bridge the gap from ops to DevOps
- Homelabbers wanting real projects – Deploy something you actually use
- Self-hosters – Build apps tailored to your needs
The sovereignty angle: Every piece of this stack can run on hardware you control. No vendor lock-in, no surprise bills, no “we’re discontinuing this service” emails. Your code, your infrastructure, your rules.
Get Notified When This Series Launches
6 practical deployment guides starting 1st May 2026. From vibe coding to production infrastructure you own. No spam, just a heads-up when each article goes live.
Related Learning Paths
- Linux Fundamentals – Containers run on Linux (12 guides)
- Homelab Guides – The infrastructure to deploy on
- Digital Sovereignty – The philosophy behind self-hosting
- Automation Series – IaC and configuration management
ReadTheManual is run, written and curated by Eric Lonsdale.
Eric has over 20 years of professional experience in IT infrastructure, cloud architecture, and cybersecurity, but started with PCs long before that.
He built his first machine from parts bought off tables at the local college campus, hoping they worked. He learned on BBC Micros and Atari units in the early 90s, and has built almost every PC he’s used between 1995 and now.
From helpdesk to infrastructure architect, Eric has worked across enterprise datacentres, Azure environments, and security operations. He’s managed teams, trained engineers, and spent two decades solving the problems this site teaches you to solve.
ReadTheManual exists because Eric believes the best way to learn IT is to build things, break things, and actually read the manual. Every guide on this site runs on infrastructure he owns and maintains.