RFC: Clockwork is the quote-to-order journey we cannot show clients today

rfcs/2026-08-clockwork-commerce-service-adoption.md

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+# RFC: Use Clockwork to unblock the quote-to-order journey we show clients
+
+**Status:** Proposal
+**Author:** [James Kurz](https://github.com/jameskurz-filecoin)
+**Audience:** Fil One engineers
+**Date:** 2026-08-19
+
+## TL;DR
+
+Enterprise and channel conversations still cannot walk one path from a tailored
+quote to approval, order, provisioning, and billing. That work lives in HubSpot,
+Stripe, PDFs, and people. It makes Fil One look less finished than the storage
+product, and it blocks deals we should be able to close or demo.
+
+[Clockwork](https://github.com/fil-one/clockwork) is a working prototype of that
+journey: someone issues a quote, an approver accepts it, the customer sees an
+order, and that order is what we would provision. We would not sell Clockwork.
+PAYG in the Fil One console stays as it is.
+
+**Decision after a 45-minute demo:** pilot this app, trial a vendor (Chargebee
+or Stripe Billing + HubSpot), or kill it. Off-the-shelf is allowed to win.
+Doing nothing is not, if we keep showing partners a journey we cannot run.
+
+Not a billing cutover. Not a Fil One rewrite. Not anyone owning the repo from
+this document alone.
+
+## Who is stuck today
+
+- **A prospective customer** who needs an annual or custom quote, not self-serve
+  PAYG. Today that is email and a PDF. They cannot see the quote, accept it, or
+  watch it become an account.
+- **A channel partner** who should register a deal, price it, and see commission
+  without a spreadsheet.
+- **Us (sales, partnerships, finance)** who cannot point at one record and say
+  which quote became which order, which invoice, which tenant.
+
+Clockwork is for all three. Sales and finance have not signed off that they
+will live in it; the demo is how we find that out.
+
+## What you can show a client tomorrow
+
+https://clockwork-commerce-demo.netlify.app/
+
+Shared password (Netlify env; I will put it in the FF 1Password vault before
+we sit down — it is not in git). Then pick a persona. The site is fake data on
+Netlify. It does not talk to Stripe, WorkOS, Auth0, or Forge.
+
+Walk this:
+
+1. `/demo` → **Start as Mara Voss** (customer).
+2. Open the issued annual quote and accept it (PO `PO-DEMO-0312`).
+3. Download the order-form PDF. The quote flips to accepted.
+4. Switch to an internal persona if you want the operator view.
+5. **Restore demo data** when you are done.
+
+That is the impression I want in the room: quote → accept → order, in one
+place, looking like a product. The RFC is whether we make a slice of that
+true against Fil One.
+
+## What Clockwork is (and is not)
+
+A TypeScript app I built, with a lot of AI assistance. Not a vendor. Not a
+SKU we sell.
+
+The **demo** is Next.js on Netlify plus a password and persona cookies.
+
+**If we ran it for real:** Next.js on Vercel, Supabase Postgres, WorkOS AuthKit
+for Clockwork login, a Stripe adapter in-repo, Trigger.dev. Fil One customers
+would still log into Fil One with Auth0. Clockwork would not sit in front of
+Auth0 or become the PAYG Stripe writer.
+
+There is no Fil One API yet. Provisioning is typed ports and fakes. A pilot
+would need the smallest real call: “this approved order means enable this
+product for this org.” That is later work. This RFC does not design it.
+
+Engineering would own uptime, bugs, and security if we keep the app. That
+competes with storage work. Name that cost before we fall in love with the
+demo.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+- **Pilot Clockwork.** My lean, because we can put it in front of a client
+  now. Smallest next step after the demo: one non-PAYG path, no Stripe cutover,
+  no Auth0 federation.
+- **Buy Chargebee, or Stripe Billing + HubSpot.** Allowed to win. I have not
+  done a bake-off. If the team would rather buy, that is a valid result of
+  this RFC — as long as we can still demo a coherent journey to clients.
+- **Keep stitching email/PDF/HubSpot.** Cheap for engineering. Continues to
+  block the conversations that need a quote-to-order story.
+
+## Decisions needed
+
+1. Sit through the demo.
+2. Then: **pilot Clockwork**, **trial a vendor**, or **kill it**.
+3. If we pilot: who is on-call, and what is the one customer path in scope.
+
+## References
+
+- [Live demo](https://clockwork-commerce-demo.netlify.app/)
+- [Clockwork repo](https://github.com/fil-one/clockwork)
+- [README rewrite (not merged)](https://github.com/fil-one/clockwork/pull/35)