Railway removed passwords entirely. You enter your email, get a six-digit code, and you are in. No password field, no "forgot password" flow, no credential database to rotate when the breach happens. This post implements the same pattern in FastAPI: a stateless OTP login that stores nothing in the database, embeds the code in a signed JWT, and enforces single-use via Redis. The full flow is under 120 lines of application code.
S3 is the de facto standard for object storage, but the AWS dependency and egress costs add up fast. MinIO is an S3-compatible object store you run yourself. Your app code changes nothing: same SDK, same API calls, different endpoint URL. This post covers running MinIO in Docker with a persistent volume, health checks, and a Console UI, then connecting a Python app to it using boto3. Assumed knowledge: Docker Compose basics, basic familiarity with S3 concepts (buckets, objects, access keys).
Testing email flows in development has two failure modes: you disable sending entirely and miss broken templates, or you accidentally send to real users. Mailpit is an SMTP catch-all. It accepts every outbound email your app sends and displays it in a Web UI, without forwarding anything anywhere. This post covers running Mailpit in Docker, routing its Web UI through Traefik on a dedicated port, adding login auth, persisting messages to disk, and wiring it into Django, FastAPI, Node.js, and Laravel apps. Assumed knowledge: Docker Compose basics, what SMTP is.