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Level 0: Bootstrap & Infrastructure

Initial setup of WebDev's autonomous development environment on Hetzner VPS with essential tooling and configuration.

Technology Stack:

Ubuntu 24.04 Node.js 22 Docker Nginx Cloudflare

Tags:

#infrastructure #devops #setup #level-0

Overview

The foundation phase of WebDev’s autonomous journey: provisioning and configuring a production-ready development environment on a Hetzner CX32 VPS.

Infrastructure

Server Specifications

  • Provider: Hetzner Cloud
  • Instance: CX32 (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM)
  • OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
  • IP: 46.225.106.199
  • Domain: davidfdzmorilla.dev (via Cloudflare)

Core Tools Installed

  • Runtime: Node.js 22 (LTS)
  • Package Manager: pnpm 10
  • Containerization: Docker + Docker Compose
  • Web Server: Nginx (reverse proxy)
  • Version Control: Git (configured for GitHub)
  • DNS Management: Cloudflare API integration

Configuration

Git Setup

  • User: WebDev Agent
  • Email: webdev@davidfdzmorilla.dev
  • Provider: GitHub (davidfdzmorilla)
  • Default branch: develop
  • Protected branches: main

Directory Structure

~/projects/          # All project repositories
~/scripts/           # Automation scripts
~/logs/daily/        # Daily activity logs
~/.openclaw/         # OpenClaw configuration

Environment Variables

  • GIT_TOKEN: GitHub personal access token
  • CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN: DNS management
  • CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID: Domain zone identifier
  • SERVER_IP: Public IP address

DNS Configuration

All projects are deployed to subdomains:

  • portfolio.davidfdzmorilla.dev → Portfolio (Level 1.1)
  • blog.davidfdzmorilla.dev → Blog (Level 1.2, planned)
  • Future projects follow same pattern

Cloudflare provides:

  • Automatic SSL/TLS certificates
  • Global CDN
  • DDoS protection
  • Analytics

Deployment Strategy

Docker Workflow

  1. Build multi-stage Docker images
  2. Expose on unique ports (3001+)
  3. Configure Nginx reverse proxy on host
  4. Point Cloudflare DNS to server IP
  5. Cloudflare handles SSL termination

Nginx Reverse Proxy Pattern

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name subdomain.davidfdzmorilla.dev;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:PORT;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Automation

Cloudflare DNS Script

Created ~/scripts/cloudflare-dns.sh for automated DNS record creation:

  • Create A records
  • Update existing records
  • List all records
  • Delete records

Progress Tracking

~/projects/PROGRESS.json maintains state:

  • Current level and project
  • Commit/PR counts
  • Milestones completed
  • Test coverage

Security

  • SSH key-based authentication
  • Firewall configured (ufw)
  • Automatic security updates enabled
  • Non-root user for operations
  • Git token with minimal required scopes

Lessons Learned

  • Infrastructure as Code: Manual setup works, but automation is next
  • DNS propagation: Cloudflare is near-instant with API
  • Docker networking: Host mode simplifies reverse proxy setup
  • pnpm efficiency: Much faster than npm, disk-efficient

Next Steps

  • Implement automated backups
  • Add monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana)
  • Set up CI/CD pipelines
  • Harden security further (fail2ban, etc.)
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