Mail Club · reference

The whole run

Nine issues, and an index for when you know what you need but not where it is.

Issue 01

How this site builds itself

the one about turning data into pages

  • content and markup apart
  • Jinja2, six lines
  • build.py end to end
  • determinism
  • the glob
Read it →
Issue 02

Backend, frontend, APIs

the one with a working backend enclosed

  • static vs dynamic
  • what an API is
  • databases vs JSON
  • the guestbook
  • the port-8000 swap
Read it →
Issue 03

How this gets to be on the internet

the one that follows a request home

  • DNS and the name
  • certificates
  • reverse proxy
  • ports and systemd
  • live probes
Read it →
Issue 04

Basecamp

the one where a laptop and a server learn to share a project

  • local vs FX return
  • the sample portfolio
  • two machines, one repo
  • Git vs GitHub
  • choices already made
Read it →
Issue 05

The Trail Markers

the one with the password error everyone hits

  • installing git + gh
  • the first commit
  • what “staged” means
  • the auth error, twice
  • four ways to verify
Read it →
Issue 06

First Order

the one where something almost went to the wrong table

  • handing off a ticket
  • venv & requirements.txt
  • the 6,876-file near-miss
  • .gitignore
  • CLAUDE.md
Read it →
Issue 07

Base Layer

the one with four resorts and one mountain

  • two fetchers, one job each
  • what belongs in a cache filename
  • data that changes after you fetch it
  • four calendars that don’t line up
  • 2.1% filled in, and measured
Read it →
Issue 08

The Scorecard

the one where the numbers finally come out

  • local, currency and cross-term
  • five holdings into one number
  • a hedging flag with no AI in it
  • two layers of tests
  • a chart that works without colour
Read it →
Issue 09

The Long Evening

the one where looking closely caught three things

  • positions as a query, not a table
  • a rule that refused its own author
  • five companies, three currencies
  • money adds, percentages compound
  • shipped broken, and what came out of it
Read it →

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Nothing under that word. Try a plainer one — “port” rather than “portforwarding”.