context-and-tools

Picks the right Netlify site-protection layer and disambiguates the three unrelated "auth" concepts users conflate — app-user login (Netlify Identity), site-load gating (Password Protection / project visibility), and dashboard SAML SSO. Use it when asked to password-protect a site or Deploy Preview, make a project private/public, restrict a site to your team, require SSO to view a site, set up company-wide app SSO, or invite users to a private project. Also use it for SSO-session symptoms on protected sites: "logged out mid-session", 401s after about an hour, or token expiry/refresh questions. Not for wiring auth code — route app-login setup to netlify-identity.

Run AI agent tasks remotely on Netlify using Claude, Codex, or Gemini. Use when the user wants to run an AI agent on their site, get a second opinion from another model, or delegate development tasks to run remotely against their repo.

Use Netlify AI Gateway to call OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, TypeSafe (Jev), or OpenRouter-hosted models (xAI/DeepSeek/Meta/Mistral/Qwen) from Netlify Functions or Edge Functions without managing provider accounts or API keys. Reach for this when adding an AI feature to a Netlify app — a chatbot, text summarizer, image generator, joke/content generator, form-submission routing or analysis, or any LLM call — or when wiring the OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini/TypeSafe/OpenRouter SDK into a Netlify Function, choosing which env vars to use, streaming long generations, or debugging why gateway calls fail at build time or return 401.

Store and retrieve unstructured data like file uploads, images, documents, JSON, and cache-like state with Netlify Blobs. It is a zero-config key/value store accessible from Functions, Edge Functions, and Build Plugins. Reach for this when you handle a file or image upload, persist Background Function output like sitemaps or processed media, cache API responses, store per-deploy assets, or need a simple key/value store from a serverless function. Covers creating site and deploy stores, reading and writing values and JSON, listing keys with metadata, atomic conditional writes, consistency modes, region selection, and file-based uploads. Not for per-user, transactional, or relational data — use Netlify DB for that.

Cache dynamic and static responses on Netlify's CDN from Functions, Edge Functions, and proxies. Use when you add caching or cache-control headers to a function response, tune cache TTL or stale-while-revalidate, set up the durable cache, vary a cache key by query/header/cookie/country/language, purge or invalidate the cache by site or cache tag, use the programmatic Cache API (caches.open/match/put) or @netlify/cache helpers (fetchWithCache/cacheHeaders/getCacheStatus), speed up an expensive API call, add ISR or on-demand revalidation, or debug why a response is or isn't cached via the Cache-Status header.

Configure Netlify builds and routing via netlify.toml, _redirects, and _headers. Use when setting a build command or publish directory, adding redirects or rewrites or proxies, adding an SPA fallback rewrite, setting custom response headers or basic auth, managing environment variables and secrets, scoping vars per deploy context, marking a var as secret, disabling secret scanning, configuring functions bundling, ignoring builds, or wiring up a monorepo or JavaScript SPA on Netlify.

Zero-config Postgres for Netlify apps via @netlify/database — querying data from Functions/Edge Functions, writing schema migrations, setting up Drizzle ORM, local dev with netlify dev, database branches for deploy previews, and migrating an existing Postgres project onto Netlify. Use when adding a database, building a contact form or CRUD API, writing SQL migrations, wiring up Drizzle, running netlify database commands, testing with a local Postgres, or switching from Neon/Supabase/RDS to Netlify Database.

Create, configure, and manage Netlify deploys from code — reach for this when setting up Git continuous deployment, running netlify deploy or netlify deploy --prod from the CLI, writing netlify.toml deploy contexts, adding a Deploy to Netlify button, wiring build hooks, configuring Deploy Previews or branch deploys, locking or skipping deploys, fixing a failed or secrets-scanning deploy, or when someone asks to "deploy my site", "set up preview deploys", "add per-branch build config", or "add a deploy button to my README".

Write, configure, and deploy Netlify Edge Functions (Deno runtime at the network edge) in TypeScript/JavaScript. Use when adding request/response manipulation at the edge — auth middleware, geolocation redirects, A/B testing and personalization, content localization, redirects/rewrites, SSR at the edge, or transforming responses — or when configuring path routing, response caching, or edge error handling. Triggers on tasks like "add auth middleware", "geo-based redirect", "A/B testing at the edge", "rewrite requests", or editing files in netlify/edge-functions.

Serverless form handling on Netlify-hosted sites — detects HTML forms at deploy time, stores submissions, filters spam, and sends notifications. Use when adding a contact form, lead-capture form, file-upload form, or newsletter signup to a Netlify site; wiring AJAX form submission; setting up a custom thank-you page; adding a honeypot or reCAPTCHA to a form; getting forms working in Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, or Gatsby; reading form submissions via the Netlify API; or debugging missing submissions and forms that silently fail to register.

Deploy and configure web frameworks on Netlify — build settings and SSR/edge adapters plus local platform emulation and env vars. Use when setting up or fixing a framework deploy (Next.js / Astro / Nuxt / SvelteKit / Remix / React Router / TanStack Start / SolidStart / Gatsby / Angular / Vite / Express / Hydrogen / Hugo / Eleventy / Vue / React), adding SSR or edge functions or middleware wired to Netlify context, fixing SPA redirect and catch-all rules, setting a build command or publish directory, or debugging "why isn't my env var updating" and framework build failures.

Write, configure, and deploy Netlify serverless functions in TypeScript, JavaScript, or Go. Use this when adding an API endpoint or backend route, adding a contact form handler, wiring auth or Identity signup/login hooks, building streaming or AI-proxy responses, scheduling cron jobs, running long background jobs (batch processing/scraping), reacting to deploy or form events, setting up rate limiting or region/memory config, or reading environment variables and secrets inside a function. Covers file locations, the Request/Context/Response handler shape, path routing, config options, and local testing with netlify dev.

Add user authentication to a Netlify site with @netlify/identity — signup/login/logout, Google/GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket OAuth, server-side getUser() checks, role-based access control, and Identity event functions. Use it when a task involves adding a login or signup form, gating content to members or roles, "auth middleware" or verifying users in Netlify Functions or Edge Functions, handling OAuth or email-confirmation callbacks, assigning roles at signup, or customizing Identity emails. For locking a whole site to your company or employees-only access, use netlify-access-control instead.

Transform, resize, crop, reformat, and optimize images on demand via Netlify Image CDN's /.netlify/images endpoint. Use when adding responsive images, generating thumbnails, converting formats (avif/webp/png), cropping to aspect ratios, tuning image quality, creating blurred placeholders, allowlisting remote image domains, serving user-uploaded images, or wiring framework image components (Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, Angular, Gatsby) to Netlify. Triggers on tasks like "optimize images", "add image thumbnails", "resize images on the fly", "serve images from an external domain", or "add blur placeholders".

Build, deploy, and secure Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers on Netlify. Use whenever the task involves creating an MCP server, exposing an app or API to AI agents as MCP tools, letting Claude / Cursor / Claude Code call a custom remote server, or adding MCP tools to an existing Netlify site. Covers the MCP SDK + Streamable HTTP transport on a Netlify Function, authentication (single shared secret vs per-user API keys with Netlify Identity), read/write safety, file uploads, and connecting clients. Use even when the user just says "MCP", "tool server for an agent", or "let an AI use my API".