I wasted 3 weeks on auth before shipping a single feature

I’m a Python dev building a SaaS.

Here’s what my first month actually looked like:

Week 1: JWT auth. Errors I didn’t understand.

Week 2: OAuth loops at 2AM.

Week 3: Stripe webhooks failing in production.

Month 1: Still no real feature shipped.

The idea wasn’t bad.

I was stuck in setup hell.

I realized most tutorials show “how to make it work” — not how to make it production-safe.

So I started documenting everything that broke, every edge case, every mistake.

It turned into a full production guide for Flask + JWT + Stripe webhooks + CORS.

Not a framework.

Not magic.

Just the patterns that actually survive prod.

Curious:

How long did it take you to get auth + payments stable in your first SaaS?

(If anyone wants the write-up, I can share it below.)