Independent retailers: inventory manager using Next.js

Summary

A inventory manager blueprint for independent retailers built with Next.js on Ample. Domain schema: products (sku, name, category, price, active): the SKU catalog; stock_movements (sku, location, delta, reason, moved_at): receipts, sales and adjustments; orders (order_no, customer_reference, status, placed_at): orders with status transitions; order_lines (order_no, sku, qty, unit_price): order contents; events (seq, record_type, record_id, kind, at): application-owned history written in the same transaction. Public information: product catalog and availability, store locations and hours, returns policy. Kept out of scope until handling is reviewed: customer contact and payment details, supplier cost prices. Payment details belong to your payment provider; only order status and public catalog data are modeled here. Technical basis verified on Next.js: an optimistic version check and an event row written in the same transaction, a stale update rejected, and a history query over the application-owned events (history=2 conflict=rejected).

Infrastructure requirements

• Verified Compute: (Apps run in isolated x86_64 Firecracker microVMs that auto-pause when idle and wake on request; sizes are the priced VM sizes.)
• Verified Postgres: (Managed PostgreSQL 16 runs in its own microVM and is auto-provisioned when an app needs a database and no DATABASE_URL is supplied.)
• Verified S3-compatible object storage: (Buckets are S3-compatible with issued credentials; PutObject and GetObject are verified by canary. Other S3 operations are not verified.)

Prerequisites

• A Next.js project (next build then next start -H 0.0.0.0 -p $PORT on the node-22 template)
• A PostgreSQL driver reading DATABASE_URL (auto-provisioned when omitted)
• Bucket credentials from ample bucket create passed as encrypted S3_* environment variables
• A review of which independent retailers data classes may be handled at all; this blueprint models public information only

Exact tested configuration

• template: node-22
• runtime: node
• size: s-1vcpu-1gb
• install: npm install
• build: npm run build --if-present
• start: npm run start

Steps

1. Model the independent retailers domain. Create the tables products, stock_movements, orders, order_lines, events. The sku catalog lives in products; keep the sensitive classes (customer contact and payment details, supplier cost prices) out of this schema.

2. Workflow step 1. Model SKUs and stock movements; derive stock from movements

3. Workflow step 2. Apply movements transactionally with an optimistic version check on the SKU

4. Workflow step 3. Record an event per movement for history

5. Workflow step 4. Deploy and verify history and rejected stale updates

6. Deploy. Run the synchronous deploy once and read the result. Re-running with no change is a no-op.

   ample deploy . --name <app-name> --public --env S3_ENDPOINT=... --env S3_REGION=... --env S3_BUCKET=... --env S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=... --env S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
   

7. Verify. Run the pattern self-test(s) from the example (/p/transactional-workflows) and your own acceptance checks for the independent retailers workflow.

   ample logs <deployment_id> --kind build
   

Tested examples

• Next.js pattern fixture (tests/deploy-canaries/next-js-patterns): Verified transactional workflows basis for this blueprint.

Success checks

• app responds on its public URL (/ on the live URL, expect ample canary next js patterns)
• transactional-workflows self-test from the example (/p/transactional-workflows on the live URL, expect see the pattern fixture checks)

Limitations

• The technical basis (transactional workflows on Next.js) was verified with the pattern fixture; the independent retailers schema and workflow are an original design for this blueprint and were not executed as a separate application.
• No health, financial, privacy or other compliance claim is made. Payment details belong to your payment provider; only order status and public catalog data are modeled here.
• Public content and synthetic examples only until actual data-handling requirements have been reviewed.
• Verified on the node-22 template at s-1vcpu-1gb; region, request-duration limits and other sizes are unknown or unverified.
• Managed PostgreSQL 16 only; extensions, connection limits and backup or restore procedures are not verified.
• PutObject and GetObject with path-style addressing are verified; other S3 operations and CDN cache rules are not.

Cost estimate

Estimated 10.00 USD per month (size prices from pricing.toml at build revision a1b8c38919e59cd035ebabaced73cf84ece24371).

• app server x1 s-1vcpu-1gb: 5.00 USD
• managed PostgreSQL database x1 s-1vcpu-1gb: 5.00 USD

Always-on monthly price of the tested sizes; apps and databases auto-pause when idle. Buckets are allocation-priced per quota and not included.

Verification evidence

• canary_run on 2026-09-21T02:34:39Z at revision 1d28ae0-dirty (CLI 0.1.21): Next.js pattern fixture deployed on Ample (next build then next start -H 0.0.0.0 -p $PORT on the node-22 template); the transactional workflows checks passed: an optimistic version check and an event row written in the same transaction, a stale update rejected, and a history query over the application-owned events (history=2 conflict=rejected). The blueprint's Independent retailers schema and workflow below build on that verified basis and were not separately executed. (expires 2027-03-20T02:34:39Z)

Execution binding

MCP tool ample_deploy (registry mcp:ample_deploy), schema hash 876465fce906da0c observed 2026-09-21T03:19:59.461917+00:00 at revision 49962bcade4f, binding state current, required scopes: servers:write, databases:read, buckets:read.