Field notes from production Firebase work.
October 26, 2026 · FlameRangers
One project per environment, rules and indexes in the repo, the emulator suite running your tests on every pull request, and a deploy order that does not break on index builds. The environment setup we put in place on hardening engagements, and the failure mode each piece prevents.
Read moreOctober 19, 2026 · FlameRangers
A dashboard tile that scans 400,000 order documents is 400,000 reads every page load. Aggregation queries, scheduled exports, and the streaming extension each fix that at a different price — here are the meters on all three.
Read moreOctober 12, 2026 · FlameRangers
onSnapshot is not free, and it is not one read either. Here is how listener reads are billed, what the persistent cache does and does not save you, and when a Firestore bundle on a CDN is the cheaper answer.
Read moreOctober 5, 2026 · FlameRangers
Phone auth is a payment API with a login screen attached. Here is how SMS pumping drains a Firebase bill, what reCAPTCHA Enterprise and region allowlists actually stop, and where blocking functions belong in the sign-up path.
Read moreSeptember 28, 2026 · FlameRangers
Firestore has no text search. Teams fake it with prefix ranges and array-of-tokens fields until the index blows up. Here is what each approach actually costs, and where Firestore's own vector search fits.
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