WhoIsOutlier

The product

WhoIsOutlier is a membership LMS built for a YouTuber with a relevant audience. The platform handles Stripe subscriptions, serves multimedia content from AWS S3 with presigned URLs, and organizes material in a three-level hierarchy with per-user progress tracking.

Architecture

Backend in AdonisJS 6 + TypeScript with Lucid ORM against PostgreSQL. Frontend in React 19 + Vite + Tailwind 4 with Zustand for auth and MUI for complex components.

Models

• User with role (user / admin)
• Subscription linked to the Stripe account
• SuperCategory → Category → SubCategory (individual class with S3 assets)
• Insight (Markdown post with S3 image)
• Advertisement (banners for members)
• UserSubCategoryProgress to track progress

Stripe payments

My first Stripe production integration. I implemented:

• Webhooks with HMAC verification of the stripe-signature header.
• A charge.succeeded handler that activates or renews the subscription.
• Subscription cancellation with cleanup of local state.
• Idempotency to support Stripe retries without duplicating records.

Protected content with S3

UploadService with @aws-sdk/lib-storage for multipart uploads, UUID-based unique names and presigned URLs with configurable expiry to serve content only to active members. This avoids exposing direct URLs that could be shared indefinitely.

Access control

Chained auth() + admin() middleware to protect administrative routes (/api/admin/*). Role control is enforced both in the backend and in the frontend router.

Key takeaways

• First Stripe integration in production with webhooks and signature verification.
• First AWS S3 integration — uploads, presigned URLs and bucket policies.
• First project with AdonisJS — routes, middlewares, Lucid ORM, VineJS validation, Japa testing.
• Architectural planning of a 9-model relational system before the AI-assistant boom.