RentLetter.ca

AI cover letter generator for Toronto renters. Same architecture as DepositBack with email delivery + downloadable PDF/Word + editable result.

What's built

• ✅ Landing page (warm cream + black + orange, Fraunces serif headlines)
• ✅ Two-tier pricing ($9.99 single / $19.99 unlimited)
• ✅ 16-field form (now includes email)
• ✅ Stripe payment verification — Claude API only fires AFTER paid session confirmed
• ✅ Claude Sonnet 4.5 for letter generation (better tone than Haiku)
• ✅ Editable result page — textarea instead of read-only display
• ✅ localStorage persistence — reload the page, letter stays
• ✅ Email delivery via Resend with PDF + Word attachments
• ✅ Direct PDF / Word downloads from result page
• ✅ Mobile responsive

Setup (30 minutes)

1. Push to GitHub

Create a new private repo called rentletter, push everything inside this folder.

2. Set up Stripe Payment Links

Create TWO products in Stripe Dashboard → Products:

• Single Letter — $9.99 CAD one-time
• Unlimited 30 days — $19.99 CAD one-time

For each, create a Payment Link with:

• After payment URL: https://rentletter.ca/?paid=true&session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}
• ⚠️ The {CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID} literal is REQUIRED — Stripe replaces it with the real ID

Copy both payment link URLs into pages/index.js lines 6–7.

3. Set up Resend (email)

• Sign up at resend.com (free tier = 3,000 emails/month)
• Add and verify domain rentletter.ca (DNS records in their dashboard)
• Once verified, you can send from [email protected]
• Copy your API key

4. Deploy to Vercel

Import the GitHub repo. Add these environment variables:

Variable	Value
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Your existing Anthropic key
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY	sk_live_... from Stripe → Developers → API keys
RESEND_API_KEY	re_... from Resend

5. Buy domain

• Namecheap: rentletter.ca (~$15 CAD/yr)
• Add domain in Vercel → Settings → Domains
• Add DNS A record in Namecheap pointing to Vercel

6. Test end-to-end

1. Fill form with real email
2. Hit pay → Stripe checkout (use a real card, refund yourself after)
3. Redirect to /?paid=true&session_id=cs_live_...
4. Letter generates (15–20 sec)
5. Lands on result page
6. Email arrives in 30 seconds with both PDF + Word attached
7. Reload the page → letter still there
8. Edit the letter → click Download PDF → file uses your edits

Files

rentletter/
├── pages/
│   ├── index.js              ← Landing + form + editable result
│   └── api/
│       ├── generate.js       ← Sonnet 4.5 + Stripe verification
│       ├── send.js           ← Email with PDF + Word attachments
│       └── download.js       ← Direct PDF / Word download
├── package.json              ← Includes resend, docx, pdf-lib
├── next.config.js
└── README.md

Launch sequence

1. Tonight: Ship + test end-to-end
2. Day 1: Post on r/TorontoRenting, r/Toronto4Rent — "Just built this after losing 8 apartments"
3. Day 2: Reply to live threads on r/Toronto where people ask how to stand out
4. Day 3: Facebook groups (Toronto Apartments for Rent 50K, GTA Renters 30K)
5. Day 4: TikTok testimonial video (Arcads format that worked before)