How this project works
Rivermouth Commons is the FastAPI remake of Westloop: a neighborhood social network with accounts, profiles, follows, likes, comments, a following timeline, search, notices, and a real Ubuntu VPS deploy. Each numbered folder in fcc-fastapi-social is a working snapshot.
The stack, and why these tools
| Job | Choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Language / framework | Python, FastAPI | FastAPI is excellent at typed routes and still happy to return HTML. SQLAlchemy 2 models the graph. You already know Python from the Django sibling. |
| Database | PostgreSQL | Follows, likes, and comments need foreign keys and unique pairs. SQLite is only for the first laptop boot. |
| CSS | Tailwind CSS | Feeds, avatars, and a sticky nav are layout-heavy. Utilities stay in the templates you already edit. |
| JavaScript | HTMX + Alpine.js | Jinja fragments + HTMX. Do not build a JSON API until a mobile client exists. |
| Authentication | Signed session cookies + passlib/bcrypt | itsdangerous-signed cookies and bcrypt. Starlette SessionMiddleware is enough. |
| Process / proxy | Gunicorn + Uvicorn workers, Nginx, Let’s Encrypt | Same VPS shape as Westloop: one app process, Postgres on localhost, Nginx for TLS and static/media files. |
| Hosting / DNS | Hetzner Cloud CX22 (or Contabo / DigitalOcean), Cloudflare Registrar + DNS | You own the box. PaaS is easier and teaches less. |
| Console locally, Postmark in production | Password reset must leave the laptop. |
If you already finished the FastAPI blog, keep going — this project adds a social graph and a VPS ship, not another CRUD journal.
Parts in order
Work through the parts in sequence. Each lesson explains the ideas, then points you to a runnable GitHub snapshot.