Tooling Matrix — Monad Studio

Per-site setup checklist derived from ActiveWizards + Arizen production deployments.

Tool Matrix

Tool

Purpose

Priority

Setup Steps

CF Pages	Static hosting	Must have	1. `npx wrangler pages project create` 2. Deploy with `npx wrangler pages deploy dist --project-name= --branch=main` 3. Verify at `.pages.dev`
CF DNS	Domain management	Must have	1. Add site in CF dashboard 2. Update nameservers at registrar 3. Add DNS records (A/CNAME) 4. Enable proxy (orange cloud)
Custom domain	Production URL	Must have	1. CF Pages -> Custom domains -> Add 2. For subdomain: CNAME to `.pages.dev` 3. For root: CF auto-creates record
robots.txt	Crawl control	Must have	Create `public/robots.txt`: `User-agent: *` / `Allow: /` / `Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap-index.xml`
@astrojs/sitemap	XML sitemap	Must have	1. `npm i @astrojs/sitemap` 2. Add to `astro.config.mjs` integrations 3. Set `site:` in config 4. Verify at `/sitemap-index.xml` after build
GA4	Analytics	Must have	1. Create property at analytics.google.com 2. Get Measurement ID (`G-XXXXXXXX`) 3. Add gtag snippet to in BaseLayout 4. Verify real-time data
GSC	Search performance	Must have	1. Add property at search.google.com 2. Verify via DNS TXT record (easiest with CF DNS) 3. Submit sitemap URL 4. Wait 2-3 days for initial data
OG Image	Social previews	Must have	1. Create default 1200x630 image in `public/og/` 2. Add to SEO component 3. Per-page overrides via frontmatter `ogImage` field 4. Test with opengraph.xyz
Mailgun	Transactional email	If contact form	1. Verify sending domain at mailgun.com 2. Add DNS records (SPF, DKIM, MX) 3. Get API key 4. `npx wrangler pages secret put MAILGUN_API_KEY` 5. Create Pages Function handler
CF Web Analytics	Privacy-first analytics	Nice to have	1. CF Dashboard -> Account -> Web Analytics 2. Add site 3. Toggle on (free, no JS needed if proxied). Alternative: add JS beacon for non-proxied sites
IndexNow	Instant indexing	Nice to have	1. Generate API key 2. Create `public/.txt` with key inside 3. POST to `https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow` on publish: `{ url, key, keyLocation }`
Lighthouse CI	Performance monitoring	Nice to have	1. Install `@lhci/cli` 2. Add `lighthouserc.json` with assertions 3. Run `lhci autorun` in CI or manually 4. Target: Performance >90, Accessibility >95
Sentry	Error tracking	If JS-heavy	1. Create project at sentry.io 2. `npm i @sentry/browser` 3. Init in client-side script with DSN 4. Add source maps for debugging
astro-pagefind	Site search	Nice to have	1. `npm i astro-pagefind` 2. Add to integrations 3. Add component to nav 4. Indexes all pages at build time
astro-compress	Asset compression	Nice to have	1. `npm i astro-compress` 2. Add as LAST integration 3. Compresses HTML/CSS/JS/images on build
Umami	Self-hosted analytics	Future	Deploy when traffic justifies it. Docker on any VPS. Alternative to GA4 without Google dependency

New Site Launch — Sequential Checklist

Execute in this order. Each step depends on the ones before it.

Phase 1: Foundation (Day 1)

[ ] 1. Initialize Astro project

  npm create astro@latest -- --template minimal
  cd my-site && npm install

[ ] 2. Install core dependencies

  npm i @astrojs/sitemap astro-robots-txt astro-compress @tailwindcss/vite

[ ] 3. Configure astro.config.mjs

- Set site: 'https://yourdomain.com'

- Add Tailwind vite plugin

- Add integrations: sitemap, robotsTxt, compress (last)

[ ] 4. Create public/robots.txt

User-agent: * Allow: / Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap-index.xml

[ ] 5. Create BaseLayout with SEO

- Canonical URL, meta description, OG tags, favicon

- GA4 script placeholder (fill in after property creation)

[ ] 6. Create default OG image (public/og/default.png, 1200x630)
[ ] 7. Set up content collections in src/content.config.ts
[ ] 8. Build and test locally: npm run build && npm run preview

Phase 2: Hosting & Domain (Day 1-2)

[ ] 9. Create CF Pages project

  npx wrangler pages project create my-site

[ ] 10. Deploy to staging

  npx wrangler pages deploy dist --project-name=my-site --branch=staging

[ ] 11. Verify staging URL works: staging.my-site.pages.dev
[ ] 12. Set up CF DNS (if new domain)

- Add site in CF dashboard

- Update nameservers at registrar

- Wait for propagation (up to 24h, usually <1h)

[ ] 13. Add custom domain in CF Pages -> Custom domains
[ ] 14. Verify HTTPS is working on custom domain
[ ] 15. Create deploy.sh script for repeatable deployments

Phase 3: Analytics & Search (Day 2-3)

[ ] 16. Create GA4 property

- analytics.google.com -> Admin -> Create Property

- Get Measurement ID

- Add gtag snippet to BaseLayout

[ ] 17. Verify GA4: Check real-time report while browsing staging
[ ] 18. Add site to GSC

- search.google.com -> Add Property -> Domain

- Verify via DNS TXT record in CF DNS

[ ] 19. Submit sitemap in GSC: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap-index.xml
[ ] 20. Enable CF Web Analytics (optional, free, toggle in dashboard)

Phase 4: Contact & Email (Day 3-4, if needed)

[ ] 21. Set up Mailgun

- Verify sending domain

- Add DNS records (SPF, DKIM)

- Get API key

[ ] 22. Create Pages Function (functions/api/contact.ts)

- Freemail filtering

- Honeypot spam protection

- Dual response (JSON for fetch, redirect for form)

[ ] 23. Set CF Pages secrets

  npx wrangler pages secret put MAILGUN_API_KEY
  npx wrangler pages secret put MAILGUN_DOMAIN
  npx wrangler pages secret put NOTIFICATION_EMAIL

[ ] 24. Test contact form end-to-end (staging first, then production)

Phase 5: Production Launch (Day 4-5)

[ ] 25. Content review: All pages have meta titles, descriptions, OG images
[ ] 26. Lighthouse audit: Target Performance >90, Accessibility >95, SEO 100
[ ] 27. Test OG images: Use opengraph.xyz or Twitter card validator
[ ] 28. Set up redirects if migrating from old site (public/_redirects)
[ ] 29. Deploy to production

  npx wrangler pages deploy dist --project-name=my-site --branch=main

[ ] 30. Verify production domain resolves correctly
[ ] 31. Submit to IndexNow (optional, for fast Bing/Yandex indexing)
[ ] 32. Monitor GSC for crawl errors over next 7 days

Phase 6: Post-Launch (Week 1-2)

[ ] 33. Check GSC coverage: Fix any crawl errors or excluded pages
[ ] 34. Verify GA4 data is flowing correctly (pageviews, events)
[ ] 35. Set up Lighthouse CI or schedule manual audits monthly
[ ] 36. Add search (astro-pagefind) if >20 pages
[ ] 37. Add Sentry if site has significant client-side JavaScript

Environment Variables Checklist

Variable

Where

Required

`site`	`astro.config.mjs`	Always
`PUBLIC_GA_ID`	`.env` / CF env vars	If GA4
`MAILGUN_API_KEY`	CF Pages secret	If contact form
`MAILGUN_DOMAIN`	CF Pages secret	If contact form
`NOTIFICATION_EMAIL`	CF Pages secret	If contact form
`CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN`	Local `.env`	For wrangler CLI
`NODE_VERSION`	CF Pages env var	Set to `20`

Quick Verification Commands

# Check build output
npx astro build && ls -la dist/

# Verify sitemap exists
curl -s https://yourdomain.com/sitemap-index.xml | head -20

# Test redirects
curl -I https://yourdomain.com/old-url

# Check response headers
curl -I https://yourdomain.com/

# Lighthouse (local)
npx lighthouse https://yourdomain.com --output=json --quiet | jq '.categories | to_entries[] | {(.key): .value.score}'

# Test contact function
curl -X POST https://yourdomain.com/api/contact \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -F "name=Test" -F "email=test@company.com" \
  -F "company=TestCo" -F "project_type=AI" -F "message=Test message"