GitHub
A website where developers store and share code. Like Google Drive, but for code.
GitHub is the largest place online where developers keep the source code for their projects. When you buy a steep product, we send you an invitation to a private GitHub folder containing the source — you log in, accept the invite, and you can download or copy the code into your own project.
Why this matters for steep: Every product on steep is delivered via a GitHub invite. You'll need a free GitHub account (signup at github.com) before you check out, so the invite has somewhere to land.
Repository (repo)
A folder of code on GitHub. Each steep product is one repo.
A repository — repo for short — is a folder containing all the files of a software project, plus its history of changes. When we say 'you'll be invited to a private repo', we mean you'll get access to the folder containing the source code for whatever you bought.
See also: GitHub, GitHub invite
GitHub invite
An email from GitHub that lets you access a private folder of code.
When you buy a steep product, we automatically add your GitHub username to our private repository. GitHub sends you an email saying 'You've been invited to collaborate on Shashank-Thattai/steep'. You click 'Accept invitation' once and you have lifetime access to the code.
Why this matters for steep: Provide your GitHub username at checkout (case-sensitive, no email). The invite arrives within seconds of payment.
See also: GitHub, Repository (repo)
Stripe
The company that processes credit-card payments for our store.
Stripe is the payment infrastructure used by millions of online stores — including Lyft, Shopify, and most indie storefronts. When you click 'Checkout', you're redirected to a Stripe-hosted page that accepts your card. We never see your card number; Stripe handles it. After payment succeeds, Stripe tells our store to send you the product.
Why this matters for steep: Your card data is processed by Stripe (PCI-compliant, billion-dollar company), not by steep directly. We only see the order total and your email.
See also: Webhook
Apple Pay
Tap your iPhone or Mac to pay — no card numbers typed.
Apple Pay lets you pay with your iPhone, iPad, or Mac using Face ID, Touch ID, or your Mac's password. Your card lives in your Apple Wallet; tapping the Apple Pay button sends a one-time secure token to Stripe. Same for Google Pay on Android. Both skip the typing.
Why this matters for steep: If you buy from steep on an iPhone, you'll see an Apple Pay button at checkout. One tap, Face ID, done — usually 5 seconds.
Webhook
An automatic phone call from one website to another when something happens.
When a payment succeeds on Stripe, Stripe immediately notifies our store via a 'webhook' — basically a phone call between two computers that says 'order ABC just got paid'. Our store hears that, then sends you the product (the GitHub invite). All within seconds, no human in the loop.
Why this matters for steep: Webhooks are why your purchase fulfills automatically. If you ever buy and don't see the GitHub invite within a minute, the webhook may have failed — email support and we can re-fire it manually.
Supabase
The database where steep stores orders, accounts, and product data.
Supabase is a hosted database service — like Google Sheets, but for software. It stores your account, your past orders, your wishlist, and our product catalog. We picked it because it's open-source, secure (every row has access rules), and cheap to operate.
Why this matters for steep: If you buy a steep starter kit, your kit will run on a Supabase database too — that's part of what you're getting.
Next.js
A modern way to build fast, search-engine-friendly websites with React.
Next.js is the framework underneath this entire storefront. It's used by big sites (Hulu, Notion, OpenAI's ChatGPT website) because it makes pages load fast and rank well in Google. When we say 'Next.js 16 + Supabase + Stripe', we mean the storefront is built on top of these three things — and the source code we sell shows you exactly how to wire them together.
Tailwind CSS
A set of pre-written design styles that make a website look polished without designing from scratch.
Tailwind is the styling system used across this entire storefront. Instead of writing custom CSS for every page, you compose classes like 'bg-white p-4 rounded-lg' and the website looks consistent automatically. The component pack we sell is Tailwind-styled.
shadcn / ui
A library of React components (buttons, dropdowns, etc.) you copy into your project — you own the code.
shadcn/ui is a popular pattern for delivering React components: instead of installing a package that you can't modify, you copy the component files into your project. You can edit anything. Our component pack follows the same pattern — you own every line.
TypeScript
JavaScript with extra safety checks that catch typos before users see them.
TypeScript is JavaScript plus a layer that catches typos and bugs before the code runs. Every file in steep ends in `.ts` or `.tsx` (TypeScript files) instead of `.js`. The build step converts TypeScript to JavaScript browsers can run — but during development, the safety checks save you from common mistakes.
Single-project license
You can use the code on one website. Not multiple. Not for resale.
When you buy a steep product, you can use it on ONE website — your own storefront. You can't use the same purchase to launch five separate stores for five different clients. You also can't repackage the code and sell it as your own product. For details, see the LICENSE file in your invited repo.
Vercel
The web-hosting service where the steep store actually runs.
Vercel is the company that runs the actual servers serving steep.shashankthattai.dev. They're the makers of Next.js (see above) — when you buy a starter kit, you'll typically deploy it on Vercel too. Their free tier covers small stores; pricing only kicks in once you have meaningful traffic.
API key
A long random string that proves a server is allowed to use a service.
API keys are like passwords for services. To send emails, our store has a Resend API key. To process payments, we have a Stripe secret key. They're stored in environment variables (see below) so they never end up in the public code or git history. If a key leaks, you rotate it — generate a new one, update the env var, throw the old one away.
See also: Environment variable
Environment variable
A setting that lives outside the code — used for secrets and config that change between local + production.
Environment variables let you store secrets (API keys, database URLs) separately from the code itself. The code reads them at runtime — `process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY` etc. They never get committed to GitHub. You set them on Vercel for production, in a `.env.local` file for development.
See also: API key
Deployment
Pushing the code to the live website so visitors can see it.
Every time you change the code (fix a bug, update copy, add a feature), you 'deploy' — Vercel pulls the latest code from GitHub, builds it, and replaces the live website. Usually takes ~60-90 seconds. The site stays up the whole time.
DNS
What turns 'steep.shashankthattai.dev' into the actual server.
DNS (Domain Name System) is the phone book of the internet — when you type a website address, DNS looks up the IP address of the server that should answer. Setting up a custom domain for your steep storefront takes ~5 minutes — point your domain's DNS at Vercel, and you're live.
Row-Level Security
Database rules that ensure user A can never see user B's orders, even if they try.
Every table in our Supabase database has Row-Level Security policies — explicit rules like 'a user can only read orders they paid for'. So even if someone got past the website's login, the database itself refuses to show them data they don't own. It's defense-in-depth: the database is the last guardrail.