Purdue Hackers CMS

Payload 3 admin CMS, deployed on Vercel, backed by Turso (libSQL) and Vercel Blob.

Stack

• Payload 3.83 + Next.js 16 (App Router)
• Turso (libSQL) via @payloadcms/db-sqlite
• Vercel Blob for media uploads
• Resend for outbound email (wrapped with Sentry error capture)
• Sentry for error + performance monitoring
• Plugins: MCP, Redirects, Search, SEO, Sentry

Collections

• Users — admins with local-strategy auth + optional API keys
• ServiceAccounts — API-key-only accounts for bots/integrations
• Media — Vercel Blob-backed uploads
• Events, Rsvps, Emails — events + email blasts
• HackNightSessions — hack night content
• ShelterProjects, Ugrants — public-facing project showcases

Local development

bun install
cp .env.example .env   # fill in secrets
bun run dev

For local dev against a file-backed SQLite, set TURSO_DATABASE_URL=file:./dev.db and leave TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN empty.

Environment variables

See .env.example. Required for production:

Variable	Purpose
PAYLOAD_SECRET	Payload JWT/session signing
TURSO_DATABASE_URL	libsql://…turso.io connection URL
TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN	Turso DB auth token
BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN	Vercel Blob token (auto-set on Vercel)
RESEND_API_KEY	Resend API key for transactional email
SENTRY_DSN	Server-side Sentry DSN
NEXT_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN	Client-side Sentry DSN
SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN	Source-map upload token (Vercel CI only)

Database

Provisioning Turso

turso db create purdue-hackers-cms
turso db show purdue-hackers-cms --url
turso db tokens create purdue-hackers-cms

Add TURSO_DATABASE_URL and TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN to Vercel env (vercel env add).

Migrations

• Generate a new migration: bun run migrate:create <name>
• Apply migrations: bun run migrate
• The initial baseline lives at src/migrations/20260421_050103_initial.ts.

The build runs migrations via the ci script: payload migrate && bun run build. Set Vercel's build command to bun run ci.

Deploy

vercel link
vercel env pull .env
vercel deploy --prod

Notes

• strictNullChecks is off to keep the ported hook code compiling. Treat nullable fields defensively in new code.
• The MCP plugin registers a payload-mcp-api-keys auth collection automatically — role-based access helpers in src/collections/auth-utils.ts ignore non-role-bearing user types.