Editorial cluster
Software architecture
A pillar page that organizes posts about system design, legacy modernization, full stack decisions, and applied AI with production judgment.
Modernization and legacy
How to move existing systems without breaking operations or inventing heroic migrations.
Full stack architecture
Next.js, backend, data, and clear boundaries between product, platform, and operations.
Applied AI with judgment
Agents, models, and automation when they improve a real, auditable workflow.
Recommended reads
Initial selection based on thematic search. Fine-grained cluster assignment belongs in the next sprint.
Prisma Server Actions in Next.js 16: the patterns that work and the N+1 that sneaks up on you
Prisma in Next.js 16 Server Actions has an N+1 vector that doesn't exist in classic API routes. The culprit isn't the ORM — it's how Actions compose. Here are the patterns that prevent it.
Spring Boot 2026: Why Measuring Only Startup Time Is a Trap
I built a reproducible lab with Spring Boot 3.5, Java 21, AppCDS, AOT, and GraalVM Native. The conclusion isn't that native wins or that classic JVM loses: it's that in 2026, comparing only startup time is the fastest way to make an architecture decision with incomplete data.
Show HN: Needle distilled Gemini tool calling into 26M parameters — technical read, zero hype
A 26M parameter model trained via Gemini distillation for tool calling showed up on HN and made me stop everything. Not to celebrate — to understand what real problem it points at, where the limits actually are, and whether it belongs in a stack like mine.
pnpm workspaces: the CI cache that survived the fix and cost me 40 minutes per build
The CI was green. The cache wasn't working. Forty minutes per build run because pnpm couldn't find the store in GitHub Actions. Here are the logs, the before/after YAML, and the exact configuration that brought it down to 8 minutes.
Spring Boot Actuator in Production: The Endpoints I Left Open by Accident and How I Closed Them
After publishing my Jakarta EE vs Spring Boot analysis, I audited Actuator's defaults on a backend I own and found sensitive endpoints wide open — ones I never consciously configured. Here's the hardening checklist I built afterward.
Jakarta EE vs Spring Boot in 2026: I Migrated a Production Backend and the Tradeoffs Aren't What You'd Expect
I migrated a digital signature backend from Spring Boot 3.x to Jakarta EE 11. The synthetic benchmarks looked great. Production told me a different story. Here are the real numbers, the three problems no official guide mentions, and why neither stack wins across the board.