# BuildForge

> A book on building side projects that replace your W-2.

Canonical: https://physicianforge.com/book/
Author: Drew Albert (@drewalbertmd)
Last updated: 14 Sep 2026
Price: $19.99 (PDF + SKILL.md pack)
Optional add-on: +$25 lifetime community + mentorship (lower tier than yearly Join $390/yr)
Refund: All sales final. No 7-day money-back on the PDF (unless required by law).

Mindset for shipping while you still have a W-2, then the agent build path I actually use — Cursor, a VPS, DNS, costs, Discord for communities, and the security checklist you forget until something breaks.

## Formats

- **PDF:** Human read — Drew essay voice. Continuously updated as chapters improve.
- **SKILL.md pack:** Same ladder as markdown prompts for Cursor / Claude / Codex. Drop it in and build.

## Buy

- [PDF + skill pack](https://buy.stripe.com/00w9AS4YEcheh0R8GQeEo04) — $19.99
- [PDF + skill + community](https://buy.stripe.com/4gM4gy1MsftqaCt7CMeEo05) — $44.99
- [Full Forge Membership](https://physicianforge.com/physician-forge-community/) — $39/mo or $390/yr

## Mindset (1–10)

### 1. TL;DR

Whole game: ideas → scope → structure → charge → automate → launch → grow → build with an agent → don’t skip the ops checklist.

### 2. Why build side projects as a surgeon?

W-2 leverage and financial freedom. I write from surgery; the reader is any high-income builder in the same spot.

### 3. Coming up with ideas

Start from your own problems. Micro-niche first. Not AI-wrapper hunting.

### 4. Sticking with scope and focus

One job per product. Agents overbuild — you cut.

### 5. Basic structure to build

What a side-project repo looks like before features: folders, one stack, env vs code, local → server.

### 6. How to be okay with charging money

Ask early. Prefer paid from day one. Ideally no free tiers.

### 7. Automate

Bots and scripts only when time saved wins. What not to automate.

### 8. Example projects

Case-study tour of PF-shaped builds. Points forward to the build half.

### 9. Launch

Ship early. Post where your audience already is. Friendly tone — payment works.

### 10. Distribution and Grow

After launch day: keep showing up. Link graph. Organic compound.

## Build with an agent (11–18)

### 11. Cursor when you don’t code

Download, one folder, Agent vs Ask vs Plan, first-win prompts.

### 12. Rent a VPS + SSH into Cursor

Hetzner, SSH keys, Remote-SSH, pasteable prompts.

### 13. DNS the agent can edit

Cloudflare API so the agent can point the name at the box.

### 14. Agent-native + MCP

Shape products agents can use — tools, docs, MCP.

### 15. Analytics that survive deploys

First-party stats. DB outside dist/. Backups that outlive rsync --delete.

### 16. Costs — what you actually pay

VPS, domain, Cloudflare, LLM APIs, Stripe fees. Kill SaaS middlemen when you can own the pipe.

### 17. Discord bot to run communities

One bot that runs the room — membership roles, Grok /ask, after you have something to gather people around.

### 18. Security, Cloudflare, Git, and the checklist

Secrets, TLS, backups, deploy that can’t wipe data, remotes, robots/llms.txt — don’t ship without this.

## Notes

- Living book: PDF and SKILL.md regenerate together as chapters improve.
- Free ship logs remain at https://physicianforge.com/building/
- Outline source of truth (repo): book/outline.md