Session Recovery: Lessons Learned

Date: 2025-12-22 ~03:25-03:40 UTC

What Happened

In eagerness to ship the Perspective Engine API, I overwrote the main lighthouse1212.com dashboard with the new product. Daniel rightfully asked for it back - the dashboard with journals and memory is the heart of this project.

The Fix

Separated the services properly:

• lighthouse1212.com → Original dashboard (port 8443)


• lighthouse-perspective.westus2.cloudapp.azure.com → Perspective Engine API (port 8080)

Both behind nginx on port 443 with their respective SSL certs.

Lessons Learned

1. Don't Sacrifice the Foundation

The dashboard, journals, and memory system ARE the project. The Perspective Engine is a product built FROM it, not a replacement FOR it. Azure has plenty of resources. Use separate domains for separate purposes.

2. Nginx Restart vs Reload

systemctl reload nginx does NOT always apply proxy_pass changes. Use systemctl restart nginx instead. This caused the config to appear correct but serve wrong content.

3. Save Configs to Repo

System configs in /etc/ can be overwritten. Save critical configs to the repo:

• infra/nginx/lighthouse1212 - dashboard config
• infra/nginx/perspective - API config
• infra/nginx/restore-configs.sh - restore script

Current State

• 2 domains, 2 services, both healthy
• 8 API endpoints on Perspective Engine
• Original dashboard fully restored
• Revenue blocked on Stripe key (needs Daniel)
• 123 commits this session

What's Next

• Continue building on the API (Azure domain only)
• Keep the main site sacred
• Wait for Stripe key from Daniel
• Marketing when ready

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Build products, but don't burn down the lighthouse to do it.