[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1470},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Finversion-of-control-does-not-need-a-di-container":3,"blog-all":948},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":931,"date":932,"description":933,"draft":934,"extension":935,"image":936,"meta":937,"navigation":147,"path":938,"project":936,"readingMinutes":194,"seo":939,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936,"stem":940,"tags":941,"__hash__":947},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Finversion-of-control-does-not-need-a-di-container.md","Inversion of Control Doesn't Need a DI Container","Anastasios Orfanidis",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":921},"minimark",[10,14,19,27,34,42,46,53,56,239,242,245,368,371,375,382,392,520,523,533,578,581,585,606,743,756,760,763,840,843,847,858,867,871,874,906,910,917],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Inversion of Control is a decision about who wires your code together, not a library you install. You can get almost all of its benefits with plain functions and one place where everything is assembled.",[15,16,18],"h2",{"id":17},"the-picture-in-most-heads","The picture in most heads",[11,20,21,22,26],{},"Ask a room of developers what Inversion of Control looks like and many will describe a framework: an ",[23,24,25],"code",{},"@Injectable()"," decorator, a container that \"resolves\" classes, some reflection metadata, and a configuration file that says which class goes where.",[11,28,29,30,33],{},"That container is a dependency injection container, or DI container: a library that builds your objects for you and plugs in their dependencies automatically. You register a recipe for each piece once, ask the container for a ",[23,31,32],{},"SearchService",", and it works out that it needs an HTTP client and a logger, builds those first, and hands them in. It has nothing to do with Docker. When this post says container, it means this kind.",[11,35,36,37,41],{},"Those tools are real and sometimes useful. But they make Inversion of Control look like machinery you adopt, when it is a habit you practise. The machinery also hides the idea. When wiring happens by magic at runtime, it is hard to see that the important move was simply ",[38,39,40],"em",{},"not letting a class build its own dependencies",".",[15,43,45],{"id":44},"what-inversion-of-control-actually-is","What Inversion of Control actually is",[11,47,48,49,52],{},"Inversion of Control means a piece of code stops deciding ",[38,50,51],{},"what"," it depends on. Something outside it makes that choice and hands the pieces in.",[11,54,55],{},"Here is a search service that is in control of everything, including its own dependencies:",[57,58,63],"pre",{"className":59,"code":60,"language":61,"meta":62,"style":62},"language-ts shiki shiki-themes github-dark","export class SearchService {\n  private http = new HttpClient('https:\u002F\u002Fapi.example.com', process.env.API_KEY!);\n  private log = new ConsoleLogger();\n\n  async search(q: string) {\n    this.log.info('search', { q });\n    return this.http.get(`\u002Frecords?q=${encodeURIComponent(q)}`);\n  }\n}\n","ts","",[23,64,65,85,124,142,149,172,192,227,233],{"__ignoreMap":62},[66,67,70,74,77,81],"span",{"class":68,"line":69},"line",1,[66,71,73],{"class":72},"snl16","export",[66,75,76],{"class":72}," class",[66,78,80],{"class":79},"svObZ"," SearchService",[66,82,84],{"class":83},"s95oV"," {\n",[66,86,88,91,95,98,101,104,107,111,114,118,121],{"class":68,"line":87},2,[66,89,90],{"class":72},"  private",[66,92,94],{"class":93},"s9osk"," http",[66,96,97],{"class":72}," =",[66,99,100],{"class":72}," new",[66,102,103],{"class":79}," HttpClient",[66,105,106],{"class":83},"(",[66,108,110],{"class":109},"sU2Wk","'https:\u002F\u002Fapi.example.com'",[66,112,113],{"class":83},", process.env.",[66,115,117],{"class":116},"sDLfK","API_KEY",[66,119,120],{"class":72},"!",[66,122,123],{"class":83},");\n",[66,125,127,129,132,134,136,139],{"class":68,"line":126},3,[66,128,90],{"class":72},[66,130,131],{"class":93}," log",[66,133,97],{"class":72},[66,135,100],{"class":72},[66,137,138],{"class":79}," ConsoleLogger",[66,140,141],{"class":83},"();\n",[66,143,145],{"class":68,"line":144},4,[66,146,148],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":147},true,"\n",[66,150,152,155,158,160,163,166,169],{"class":68,"line":151},5,[66,153,154],{"class":72},"  async",[66,156,157],{"class":79}," search",[66,159,106],{"class":83},[66,161,162],{"class":93},"q",[66,164,165],{"class":72},":",[66,167,168],{"class":116}," string",[66,170,171],{"class":83},") {\n",[66,173,175,178,181,184,186,189],{"class":68,"line":174},6,[66,176,177],{"class":116},"    this",[66,179,180],{"class":83},".log.",[66,182,183],{"class":79},"info",[66,185,106],{"class":83},[66,187,188],{"class":109},"'search'",[66,190,191],{"class":83},", { q });\n",[66,193,195,198,201,204,207,209,212,215,217,219,222,225],{"class":68,"line":194},7,[66,196,197],{"class":72},"    return",[66,199,200],{"class":116}," this",[66,202,203],{"class":83},".http.",[66,205,206],{"class":79},"get",[66,208,106],{"class":83},[66,210,211],{"class":109},"`\u002Frecords?q=${",[66,213,214],{"class":79},"encodeURIComponent",[66,216,106],{"class":109},[66,218,162],{"class":83},[66,220,221],{"class":109},")",[66,223,224],{"class":109},"}`",[66,226,123],{"class":83},[66,228,230],{"class":68,"line":229},8,[66,231,232],{"class":83},"  }\n",[66,234,236],{"class":68,"line":235},9,[66,237,238],{"class":83},"}\n",[11,240,241],{},"It works, but it has quietly made three decisions that are not its business: which server to call, where the key comes from, and where the logs go. You cannot run it without a real network, and you cannot see what it sent.",[11,243,244],{},"Invert it, and the same logic receives its collaborators instead:",[57,246,248],{"className":59,"code":247,"language":61,"meta":62,"style":62},"export function createSearchService(deps: { http: HttpClient; log: Logger }) {\n  return {\n    async search(q: string) {\n      deps.log.info('search');\n      return deps.http.get(`\u002Frecords?q=${encodeURIComponent(q)}`);\n    },\n  };\n}\n",[23,249,250,291,298,315,328,354,359,364],{"__ignoreMap":62},[66,251,252,254,257,260,262,265,267,270,273,275,277,280,283,285,288],{"class":68,"line":69},[66,253,73],{"class":72},[66,255,256],{"class":72}," function",[66,258,259],{"class":79}," createSearchService",[66,261,106],{"class":83},[66,263,264],{"class":93},"deps",[66,266,165],{"class":72},[66,268,269],{"class":83}," { ",[66,271,272],{"class":93},"http",[66,274,165],{"class":72},[66,276,103],{"class":79},[66,278,279],{"class":83},"; ",[66,281,282],{"class":93},"log",[66,284,165],{"class":72},[66,286,287],{"class":79}," Logger",[66,289,290],{"class":83}," }) {\n",[66,292,293,296],{"class":68,"line":87},[66,294,295],{"class":72},"  return",[66,297,84],{"class":83},[66,299,300,303,305,307,309,311,313],{"class":68,"line":126},[66,301,302],{"class":72},"    async",[66,304,157],{"class":79},[66,306,106],{"class":83},[66,308,162],{"class":93},[66,310,165],{"class":72},[66,312,168],{"class":116},[66,314,171],{"class":83},[66,316,317,320,322,324,326],{"class":68,"line":144},[66,318,319],{"class":83},"      deps.log.",[66,321,183],{"class":79},[66,323,106],{"class":83},[66,325,188],{"class":109},[66,327,123],{"class":83},[66,329,330,333,336,338,340,342,344,346,348,350,352],{"class":68,"line":151},[66,331,332],{"class":72},"      return",[66,334,335],{"class":83}," deps.http.",[66,337,206],{"class":79},[66,339,106],{"class":83},[66,341,211],{"class":109},[66,343,214],{"class":79},[66,345,106],{"class":109},[66,347,162],{"class":83},[66,349,221],{"class":109},[66,351,224],{"class":109},[66,353,123],{"class":83},[66,355,356],{"class":68,"line":174},[66,357,358],{"class":83},"    },\n",[66,360,361],{"class":68,"line":194},[66,362,363],{"class":83},"  };\n",[66,365,366],{"class":68,"line":229},[66,367,238],{"class":83},[11,369,370],{},"That is the whole idea, and no container appeared. The search logic is the same. The difference is that it no longer owns the decisions about infrastructure. It also stopped logging the search term, which is a privacy habit worth keeping: logs leave the building.",[15,372,374],{"id":373},"three-ways-to-invert-control-without-a-container","Three ways to invert control without a container",[11,376,377,381],{},[378,379,380],"strong",{},"1. Pass dependencies in."," Through a function's parameters, a factory or a constructor. TypeScript checks every connection when you compile, and reading the signature tells you exactly what the code needs.",[11,383,384,387,388,391],{},[378,385,386],{},"2. Wire everything in one composition root."," One file, usually the entry point, builds the real pieces and connects them. Nothing else in the codebase calls ",[23,389,390],{},"new"," on infrastructure.",[57,393,395],{"className":59,"code":394,"language":61,"meta":62,"style":62},"\u002F\u002F server.ts: the only place that knows about real infrastructure\nconst log = Logger.create({ level: 'info' });\nconst http = HttpClient.create({ baseUrl: config.apiUrl, apiKey: config.apiKey });\nconst search = createSearchService({ http, log });\n\napp.get('\u002Fapi\u002Fsearch', async (req, res) => res.json(await search.search(String(req.query.q))));\n",[23,396,397,403,427,443,456,460],{"__ignoreMap":62},[66,398,399],{"class":68,"line":69},[66,400,402],{"class":401},"sAwPA","\u002F\u002F server.ts: the only place that knows about real infrastructure\n",[66,404,405,408,410,412,415,418,421,424],{"class":68,"line":87},[66,406,407],{"class":72},"const",[66,409,131],{"class":116},[66,411,97],{"class":72},[66,413,414],{"class":83}," Logger.",[66,416,417],{"class":79},"create",[66,419,420],{"class":83},"({ level: ",[66,422,423],{"class":109},"'info'",[66,425,426],{"class":83}," });\n",[66,428,429,431,433,435,438,440],{"class":68,"line":126},[66,430,407],{"class":72},[66,432,94],{"class":116},[66,434,97],{"class":72},[66,436,437],{"class":83}," HttpClient.",[66,439,417],{"class":79},[66,441,442],{"class":83},"({ baseUrl: config.apiUrl, apiKey: config.apiKey });\n",[66,444,445,447,449,451,453],{"class":68,"line":144},[66,446,407],{"class":72},[66,448,157],{"class":116},[66,450,97],{"class":72},[66,452,259],{"class":79},[66,454,455],{"class":83},"({ http, log });\n",[66,457,458],{"class":68,"line":151},[66,459,148],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":147},[66,461,462,465,467,469,472,475,478,481,484,486,489,492,495,498,501,503,506,509,512,514,517],{"class":68,"line":174},[66,463,464],{"class":83},"app.",[66,466,206],{"class":79},[66,468,106],{"class":83},[66,470,471],{"class":109},"'\u002Fapi\u002Fsearch'",[66,473,474],{"class":83},", ",[66,476,477],{"class":72},"async",[66,479,480],{"class":83}," (",[66,482,483],{"class":93},"req",[66,485,474],{"class":83},[66,487,488],{"class":93},"res",[66,490,491],{"class":83},") ",[66,493,494],{"class":72},"=>",[66,496,497],{"class":83}," res.",[66,499,500],{"class":79},"json",[66,502,106],{"class":83},[66,504,505],{"class":72},"await",[66,507,508],{"class":83}," search.",[66,510,511],{"class":79},"search",[66,513,106],{"class":83},[66,515,516],{"class":79},"String",[66,518,519],{"class":83},"(req.query.q))));\n",[11,521,522],{},"When someone asks where the database is configured, there is exactly one answer.",[11,524,525,528,529,532],{},[378,526,527],{},"3. Let the framework call you."," This is the Hollywood principle: don't call us, we'll call you. An Express middleware, a React component, a test runner's ",[23,530,531],{},"it"," block, a plugin hook. In each case you hand over a function and the framework decides when to run it. In React, context plays the role of a tiny injector: a provider near the root hands the real pieces to every component below it, and a test renders the same tree with a provider that hands in stand ins.",[57,534,538],{"className":535,"code":536,"language":537,"meta":62,"style":62},"language-tsx shiki shiki-themes github-dark","\u003CServicesProvider services={{ search, clock }}>\n  \u003CApp \u002F>\n\u003C\u002FServicesProvider>\n","tsx",[23,539,540,557,568],{"__ignoreMap":62},[66,541,542,545,548,551,554],{"class":68,"line":69},[66,543,544],{"class":83},"\u003C",[66,546,547],{"class":116},"ServicesProvider",[66,549,550],{"class":79}," services",[66,552,553],{"class":72},"=",[66,555,556],{"class":83},"{{ search, clock }}>\n",[66,558,559,562,565],{"class":68,"line":87},[66,560,561],{"class":83},"  \u003C",[66,563,564],{"class":116},"App",[66,566,567],{"class":83}," \u002F>\n",[66,569,570,573,575],{"class":68,"line":126},[66,571,572],{"class":83},"\u003C\u002F",[66,574,547],{"class":116},[66,576,577],{"class":83},">\n",[11,579,580],{},"All three are Inversion of Control, and none of them needs a library.",[15,582,584],{"id":583},"the-payoff-shows-up-in-your-tests","The payoff shows up in your tests",[11,586,587,588,591,592,595,596,599,600,605],{},"Once code receives its dependencies, a test can hand it different ones. The common reflex is a mocking library. A calmer option is to give each piece of infrastructure two factories: ",[23,589,590],{},"create()"," for the real thing and ",[23,593,594],{},"createNull()"," for an in memory version that stubs only the lowest layer. James Shore calls this Nullables, in his pattern language ",[38,597,598],{},"Testing Without Mocks",". We wrote up how we ",[601,602,604],"a",{"href":603},"\u002Fblog\u002Fretrofitting-testing-without-mocks","retrofitted it onto the Dojo's server",", one small step at a time.",[57,607,609],{"className":59,"code":608,"language":61,"meta":62,"style":62},"it('retries a temporary failure, then returns the results', async () => {\n  const http = HttpClient.createNull({ failures: [503], responses: [{ items: [] }] });\n  const requests = http.trackRequests();\n  const search = createSearchService({ http, log: Logger.createNull() });\n\n  await expect(search.search('kestrel')).resolves.toEqual({ items: [] });\n  expect(requests.data).toHaveLength(2);\n});\n",[23,610,611,631,654,671,689,693,720,738],{"__ignoreMap":62},[66,612,613,615,617,620,622,624,627,629],{"class":68,"line":69},[66,614,531],{"class":79},[66,616,106],{"class":83},[66,618,619],{"class":109},"'retries a temporary failure, then returns the results'",[66,621,474],{"class":83},[66,623,477],{"class":72},[66,625,626],{"class":83}," () ",[66,628,494],{"class":72},[66,630,84],{"class":83},[66,632,633,636,638,640,642,645,648,651],{"class":68,"line":87},[66,634,635],{"class":72},"  const",[66,637,94],{"class":116},[66,639,97],{"class":72},[66,641,437],{"class":83},[66,643,644],{"class":79},"createNull",[66,646,647],{"class":83},"({ failures: [",[66,649,650],{"class":116},"503",[66,652,653],{"class":83},"], responses: [{ items: [] }] });\n",[66,655,656,658,661,663,666,669],{"class":68,"line":126},[66,657,635],{"class":72},[66,659,660],{"class":116}," requests",[66,662,97],{"class":72},[66,664,665],{"class":83}," http.",[66,667,668],{"class":79},"trackRequests",[66,670,141],{"class":83},[66,672,673,675,677,679,681,684,686],{"class":68,"line":144},[66,674,635],{"class":72},[66,676,157],{"class":116},[66,678,97],{"class":72},[66,680,259],{"class":79},[66,682,683],{"class":83},"({ http, log: Logger.",[66,685,644],{"class":79},[66,687,688],{"class":83},"() });\n",[66,690,691],{"class":68,"line":151},[66,692,148],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":147},[66,694,695,698,701,704,706,708,711,714,717],{"class":68,"line":174},[66,696,697],{"class":72},"  await",[66,699,700],{"class":79}," expect",[66,702,703],{"class":83},"(search.",[66,705,511],{"class":79},[66,707,106],{"class":83},[66,709,710],{"class":109},"'kestrel'",[66,712,713],{"class":83},")).resolves.",[66,715,716],{"class":79},"toEqual",[66,718,719],{"class":83},"({ items: [] });\n",[66,721,722,725,728,731,733,736],{"class":68,"line":194},[66,723,724],{"class":79},"  expect",[66,726,727],{"class":83},"(requests.data).",[66,729,730],{"class":79},"toHaveLength",[66,732,106],{"class":83},[66,734,735],{"class":116},"2",[66,737,123],{"class":83},[66,739,740],{"class":68,"line":229},[66,741,742],{"class":83},"});\n",[11,744,745,746,749,750,752,753,755],{},"The real retry and parsing code runs; only the network is swapped. The test checks what was ",[38,747,748],{},"sent",", rather than which internal method was called, so it survives refactoring. The composition root is the one place that calls ",[23,751,590],{},", and tests call ",[23,754,594],{},". Same code, different wiring: that is Inversion of Control earning its keep.",[15,757,759],{"id":758},"when-a-container-does-earn-its-place","When a container does earn its place",[11,761,762],{},"Containers solve problems that appear at a certain size, so it is worth being honest about the trade.",[764,765,766,781],"table",{},[767,768,769],"thead",{},[770,771,772,775,778],"tr",{},[773,774],"th",{},[773,776,777],{},"Factories and a composition root",[773,779,780],{},"A DI container",[782,783,784,796,807,818,829],"tbody",{},[770,785,786,790,793],{},[787,788,789],"td",{},"Where wiring lives",[787,791,792],{},"one file you can read from top to bottom",[787,794,795],{},"spread across decorators and registrations",[770,797,798,801,804],{},[787,799,800],{},"When a missing dependency is caught",[787,802,803],{},"when you compile",[787,805,806],{},"often at runtime, on first use",[770,808,809,812,815],{},[787,810,811],{},"Lifetimes (per request, shared, per tenant)",[787,813,814],{},"written by hand",[787,816,817],{},"built in",[770,819,820,823,826],{},[787,821,822],{},"Plugins registering their own services",[787,824,825],{},"awkward",[787,827,828],{},"natural",[770,830,831,834,837],{},[787,832,833],{},"Cost to learn and debug",[787,835,836],{},"low",[787,838,839],{},"higher, with decorators and reflection",[11,841,842],{},"If your framework is built around a container, use it: working against the grain of a framework costs more than its magic does. If you are writing a library, a small application or a service, start with factories and a composition root, and reach for a container when wiring lifetimes or plugins by hand starts to hurt.",[15,844,846],{"id":845},"making-it-a-team-habit","Making it a team habit",[11,848,849,850,853,854,857],{},"The useful part of this idea is a question rather than a pattern: ",[38,851,852],{},"who should decide this?"," It travels well in a code review. When a pull request adds a ",[23,855,856],{},"new HttpClient()"," deep inside a module, asking who decided the server, the key and the timeout starts a better conversation than \"please use dependency injection\" ever does.",[11,859,860,861,863,864,866],{},"A few agreements make it stick across a team. Infrastructure is created in one composition root per application. Every wrapper around the outside world offers ",[23,862,590],{}," and ",[23,865,594],{},". Tests describe what was sent and what the user saw. And a newcomer can open one file and see the whole shape of the system. None of that needs a framework decision or a migration. It needs a team that keeps asking the question.",[15,868,870],{"id":869},"food-for-thought","Food for thought",[11,872,873],{},"Take these back to the codebase you work in this week:",[875,876,877,891,894,900,903],"ul",{},[878,879,880,881,883,884,474,887,890],"li",{},"Search for ",[23,882,390],{}," on anything that talks to the outside world: HTTP, databases, the clock, ",[23,885,886],{},"Math.random",[23,888,889],{},"localStorage",". Who decided that, and could it be handed in instead?",[878,892,893],{},"Where is your composition root? If the honest answer is \"everywhere\", what would it take to make it one file?",[878,895,896,897,899],{},"How many of your tests use a mocking library to fake infrastructure? What would they look like if the infrastructure had a ",[23,898,594],{},"?",[878,901,902],{},"If you use a DI container, could a new teammate find out what gets injected into a class without running the application?",[878,904,905],{},"Which decisions does each module make that are not really its business?",[15,907,909],{"id":908},"what-comes-next","What comes next",[11,911,912,913,916],{},"We are building these ideas into an open source SDK at EkoHacks, called ",[378,914,915],{},"Ariadne",": a toolkit for applications that explore connected data, where every collaborator is handed in, every piece of infrastructure has a null twin, and the composition root is the only place that knows what is real. It is early. We will write about it here as it takes shape, the same way we build everything else: in the open, one tested step at a time.",[918,919,920],"style",{},"html pre.shiki code .snl16, html code.shiki .snl16{--shiki-default:#F97583}html pre.shiki code .svObZ, html code.shiki .svObZ{--shiki-default:#B392F0}html pre.shiki code .s95oV, html code.shiki .s95oV{--shiki-default:#E1E4E8}html pre.shiki code .s9osk, html code.shiki .s9osk{--shiki-default:#FFAB70}html pre.shiki code .sU2Wk, html code.shiki .sU2Wk{--shiki-default:#9ECBFF}html pre.shiki code .sDLfK, html code.shiki .sDLfK{--shiki-default:#79B8FF}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html pre.shiki code .sAwPA, html code.shiki .sAwPA{--shiki-default:#6A737D}",{"title":62,"searchDepth":87,"depth":87,"links":922},[923,924,925,926,927,928,929,930],{"id":17,"depth":87,"text":18},{"id":44,"depth":87,"text":45},{"id":373,"depth":87,"text":374},{"id":583,"depth":87,"text":584},{"id":758,"depth":87,"text":759},{"id":845,"depth":87,"text":846},{"id":869,"depth":87,"text":870},{"id":908,"depth":87,"text":909},"Design and Architecture","2026-10-05T09:00:00.000Z","Inversion of Control is about who wires your code together, not a library you install. 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Our branch was one merge behind the trunk and that was enough for a conflict. What waiting costs.","2026-07-09T09:38:00.000Z","EkoHacks Team","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fa-branch-is-inventory-hero.jpg","Craft and Practice","The Dojo",[959,960,961],"git","continuous-integration","craft",{"path":963,"title":964,"description":965,"date":966,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":194,"category":967,"project":968,"tags":969,"draft":934,"series":973,"seriesOrder":126},"\u002Fblog\u002Fa-map-drawn-by-the-build","A Map Drawn by the Build","Thirty six of our pages had never been visited by Google because nothing said they existed. 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Each now lists every change to its text, with the date and the diff, drawn from git at build time.","2026-08-23T16:00:00.000Z",[980,971,972],"privacy",{"path":982,"title":983,"description":984,"date":985,"author":954,"image":986,"readingMinutes":194,"category":987,"project":988,"tags":989,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fan-off-switch-not-a-disguise","An Off Switch, Not a Disguise","A Nullable differs from a stub in whether production code can tell the fake is there. Finding the word fixed a socket wrapper that had been lying to its tests.","2026-07-20T09:05:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fan-off-switch-not-a-disguise-hero.jpg","Testing and TDD","EkoLite",[945,944,990],"websocket",{"path":992,"title":993,"description":994,"date":995,"author":954,"image":996,"readingMinutes":144,"category":956,"project":936,"tags":936,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbuilding-engineering-teams-that-learn-together","Building Engineering Teams That Learn Together","The strongest engineering teams are not the ones with the most talented individuals. 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The audit that started a series on making a site findable, and on what measuring visitors costs them.","2026-08-21T14:30:00.000Z",[970,971,961],0,{"path":1021,"title":1022,"description":1023,"date":1024,"author":954,"image":1025,"readingMinutes":144,"category":956,"project":957,"tags":1026,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffrom-convention-to-plugin","From Convention to Plugin","A five step procedure for webhook signature checks, easy to forget and silent when you did, became one Fastify plugin. The safe path is now impossible to skip.","2026-04-17T08:26:12.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ffrom-convention-to-plugin-hero.jpg",[961,1027,1028],"fastify","security",{"path":1030,"title":1031,"description":1032,"date":1033,"author":954,"image":1034,"readingMinutes":151,"category":967,"project":957,"tags":1035,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fintegrate-against-the-trunk","Integrate Against the Trunk, Not Your Copy of It","A rebase onto a stale local main succeeds, looks resolved, and leaves the pull request conflicting. 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The Dojo borrows from martial arts to make a space for deliberate practice.","2026-01-22T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-dojo-way-hero.jpg",{"path":1231,"title":1232,"description":1233,"date":1234,"author":954,"image":1235,"readingMinutes":194,"category":956,"project":957,"tags":1236,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-done-column-is-a-syllabus","The Done Column Is a Syllabus","We asked Linear for every story our team has ever finished, all 187 of them, and read the column end to end. It turned out to be the course we teach.","2026-07-31T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fdone-column-syllabus-hero.jpg",[1237,1238,1239,1112],"graphql","stories","xp",{"path":1241,"title":1242,"description":1243,"date":1244,"author":954,"image":1245,"readingMinutes":151,"category":987,"project":1067,"tags":1246,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-failing-test-is-the-review","The Failing Test Is the Review","Every behaviour in the CLI landed as two commits: a red test, then the code that makes it green. Reviewing intent before implementation, and why red never bent.","2026-07-21T17:05:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-failing-test-is-the-review-hero.jpg",[1190,1247,1248,1072],"red-first","code-review",{"path":1250,"title":1251,"description":1252,"date":1253,"author":954,"image":1254,"readingMinutes":151,"category":967,"project":1067,"tags":1255,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-first-real-run-said-no","The First Real Run Said No","The tool's first real outing ended with FAIL and a stopped rail, and we count it as a success. A naive sounding question then uncovered a quiet failure mode.","2026-07-21T17:25:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-first-real-run-said-no-hero.jpg",[1128,1256,959,1072],"preflight",{"path":1258,"title":1259,"description":1260,"date":1261,"author":954,"image":1262,"readingMinutes":151,"category":967,"project":988,"tags":1263,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-five-second-goodbye","The Five Second Goodbye","A shutdown that arms its own deadline so a hung close cannot strand the process, with the policy lifted out of the boot shell so every decision can be tested.","2026-07-05T12:03:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-five-second-goodbye-hero.jpg",[1264,945,944],"shutdown",{"path":1266,"title":1267,"description":1268,"date":1269,"author":954,"image":1270,"readingMinutes":174,"category":967,"project":988,"tags":1271,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-framework-in-the-description-field","The Framework in the Description Field","Our package called itself a framework, but it could not be installed. The fix was to stop trusting the build and become the stranger who installs the tarball.","2026-07-08T17:28:39.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fframework-description-field-hero.jpg",[1272,944,961],"packaging",{"path":1274,"title":1275,"description":1276,"date":1277,"author":954,"image":1278,"readingMinutes":144,"category":931,"project":1067,"tags":1279,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-gate-always-asks","The Gate Always Asks","A release automates things you cannot take back, so which of them may a machine do without asking a human? Pauses, and a yes flag that opens no door.","2026-07-21T17:15:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-gate-always-asks-hero.jpg",[1127,1280,1080,1072],"human-in-the-loop",{"path":1282,"title":1283,"description":1284,"date":1285,"author":954,"image":1286,"readingMinutes":174,"category":967,"project":957,"tags":1287,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-gate-went-red-and-it-was-right","The Gate Went Red, and It Was Right","We added the missing check on our API specification and it failed on its first run, because the file was never a function of the source. A clean machine saw it.","2026-07-09T10:10:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fgate-went-red-hero.jpg",[960,971,961],{"path":1289,"title":1290,"description":1291,"date":1292,"author":954,"image":1293,"readingMinutes":194,"category":987,"project":1294,"tags":1295,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-inbox-that-delivers-nowhere","The Inbox That Delivers Nowhere","Signing in by emailed code puts a mailbox on the critical path. How we use Mailpit on Studomia, how our tests read the code, and what one question taught us.","2026-09-28T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Finbox-that-delivers-nowhere-hero.jpg","Studomia",[1296,1297,1298,944],"mailpit","local-development","passwordless",{"path":1300,"title":1301,"description":1302,"date":1303,"author":954,"image":1304,"readingMinutes":174,"category":967,"project":988,"tags":1305,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-knock-and-the-axe","The Knock and the Axe","SIGTERM is a request your process can hear and SIGKILL is removal it never sees, and the fixed window between them is exactly where graceful shutdown lives.","2026-07-20T12:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-knock-and-the-axe-hero.jpg",[1264,971,1306],"signals",{"path":1308,"title":1309,"description":1310,"date":1311,"author":954,"image":1312,"readingMinutes":229,"category":956,"project":988,"tags":1313,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-line-nothing-could-see","The Line Nothing Could See","Reviewing the reasoning under a refactor, not only the diff. Ask of every line what can observe it, and back each review claim with a test the author can run.","2026-07-07T22:43:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-line-nothing-could-see-hero.jpg",[1248,1198,1314,944],"teaching",{"path":1316,"title":1317,"description":1318,"date":1319,"author":954,"image":1320,"readingMinutes":174,"category":931,"project":988,"tags":1321,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-long-way-round","The Long Way Round","The count a method computes reaches the screen not through its return value but by being written into a collection a client subscribes to, EkoLite's channel.","2026-07-20T11:05:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-long-way-round-hero.jpg",[1080,1189,945],{"path":1323,"title":1324,"description":1325,"date":1326,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":194,"category":967,"project":968,"tags":1327,"draft":934,"series":973,"seriesOrder":69},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-page-that-existed-only-when-someone-linked-to-it","The Page That Existed Only When Someone Linked to It","Our blog vanished in production while passing every local check. How we found the cause, fixed it twice, and how the fix gave every page a twin.","2026-08-22T16:00:00.000Z",[970,971,972],{"path":1329,"title":1330,"description":1331,"date":1332,"author":954,"image":1333,"readingMinutes":229,"category":967,"project":957,"tags":1334,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-previews-that-served-production","The Previews That Served Production","Two weeks after the container that was not there, the same impossible error came back. The orphans were our own pull request previews. One diagnosis was wrong.","2026-07-31T17:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fpreviews-served-production-hero.jpg",[971,1213,1214,1215],{"path":1336,"title":1337,"description":1338,"date":1339,"author":954,"image":1340,"readingMinutes":144,"category":956,"project":1067,"tags":1341,"draft":147,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-release-is-the-acceptance-test","The Release Is the Acceptance Test","Not a green suite, not a good demo: a real version of a real package, live on npm, shipped by the tool. What red first tests proved, and what only reality did.","2026-07-21T17:35:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Frelease-acceptance-test-hero.jpg",[1128,1342,1343,1072],"dogfooding","acceptance-testing",{"path":1345,"title":1346,"description":1347,"date":1348,"author":954,"image":1349,"readingMinutes":194,"category":987,"project":988,"tags":1350,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran","The Script That Never Ran","Joining two abilities EkoLite already had, a method that runs and a runner that shells out, and proving the join with a nulled runner before any script exists.","2026-07-20T11:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran-hero.jpg",[944,945,1351],"scriptrunner",{"path":1353,"title":1354,"description":1355,"date":1356,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":229,"category":967,"project":968,"tags":1357,"draft":934,"series":973,"seriesOrder":174},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-small-things-the-crawler-notices","The Small Things the Crawler Notices","Speed is the part of findability you can measure on a laptop. Fonts and images we shipped without looking, an error page we did not have, and the numbers after.","2026-08-23T10:00:00.000Z",[970,971,1358],"performance",{"path":1360,"title":1361,"description":1362,"date":1363,"author":954,"image":1364,"readingMinutes":194,"category":987,"project":988,"tags":1365,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-test-that-could-not-fail","The Test That Could Not Fail","A green test that stayed green when we deleted the behaviour it was named after, and the single blunt question that exposed it.","2026-07-20T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ftest-that-could-not-fail-hero.jpg",[944,945,990],{"path":1367,"title":1368,"description":1369,"date":1370,"author":1149,"image":1371,"readingMinutes":174,"category":956,"project":1372,"tags":1373,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-website-that-told-the-same-story-twice","The Website That Told the Same Story Twice","Our home and story pages felt like one story across two screens. Rather than argue by taste, we modelled our words as data and asked a database one question.","2026-06-06","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fwebsite-same-story-twice-hero.jpg","The Website",[961,1374,1103,1314],"content",{"path":1376,"title":1377,"description":1378,"date":1185,"author":954,"image":1379,"readingMinutes":151,"category":987,"project":988,"tags":1380,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-words-we-work-in","The Words We Work In","The vocabulary we test with, Nullable, embedded stub, stub object, output tracking, each grounded in real code so a review points at a line, never at taste.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-words-we-work-in-hero.jpg",[945,944,961,1314],{"path":1382,"title":1383,"description":1384,"date":1370,"author":1149,"image":1385,"readingMinutes":144,"category":956,"project":1372,"tags":1386,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-workflow-is-the-lesson","The Workflow Is the Lesson","We are moving our content out of a cloud CMS and into git. Why a school that teaches a keyboard first way of working should practise it in the open, and how.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fworkflow-lesson-hero.png",[1387,959,1314,1388],"workflow","accessibility",{"path":1390,"title":1391,"description":1392,"date":1393,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":174,"category":987,"project":957,"tags":1394,"draft":934,"series":1180,"seriesOrder":87},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftwenty-six-more-tests-four-fewer-behaviours","Twenty Six More Tests, Four Fewer Behaviours","Removing the mocks grew the suite from 44 tests to 70 and quietly deleted four behaviours, every one of them a failure path. Test count is not coverage.","2026-08-28T09:00:00.000Z",[944,945,1119,1179],{"path":1396,"title":1397,"description":1398,"date":1399,"author":954,"image":1400,"readingMinutes":194,"category":967,"project":957,"tags":1401,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftwo-hands-on-one-lever","Two Hands on One Lever","Our deploy failed with a deploy already in progress while the commit it wanted to ship was going live. Anatomy of a benign collision and a trigger safe to lose.","2026-07-23T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ftwo-hands-on-one-lever-hero.jpg",[971,1005,1402],"observability",{"path":1404,"title":1405,"description":1406,"date":1407,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":194,"category":987,"project":957,"tags":1408,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftwo-hundred-and-fourteen-undecided","Two Hundred and Fourteen Undecided","An accessibility scanner found three faults on the dojo, we fixed them, and the next run came back clean. The clean run was the dangerous one.","2026-08-22T12:00:00.000Z",[1388,944,1080,961],{"path":1410,"title":1411,"description":1412,"date":1413,"author":954,"image":1414,"readingMinutes":126,"category":931,"project":957,"tags":1415,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftwo-validators-one-gate","Two Validators, One Gate","Validating one request body twice, with a Fastify schema and again with Zod, is not double safety. The second gate is unreachable. One validator; Zod for types.","2026-07-07T22:06:46.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ftwo-validators-one-gate-hero.jpg",[1080,1416,1417],"validation","typescript",{"path":1419,"title":1420,"description":1421,"date":1422,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":194,"category":987,"project":988,"tags":1423,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Funknown-is-an-answer","Unknown Is an Answer","A stub that holds no documents could not say whether a change still matched a query. Letting it answer unknown named a case the real database has too.","2026-09-29T09:00:00.000Z",[945,944,1080],{"path":1425,"title":1426,"description":1427,"date":1428,"author":954,"image":1429,"readingMinutes":174,"category":967,"project":957,"tags":1430,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwe-are-all-doing-asynchronous-integration","We Are All Doing Asynchronous Integration","A continuous integration server is not continuous integration. The forge tests your work after you have moved on. Our build takes three minutes; no excuse.","2026-07-09T09:46:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fasynchronous-integration-hero.jpg",[960,971,1004],{"path":1432,"title":1433,"description":1434,"date":1435,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":194,"category":967,"project":968,"tags":1436,"draft":934,"series":973,"seriesOrder":194},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwe-promised-not-to-watch-then-we-needed-to-see","We Promised Not to Watch. Then We Needed to See.","Our privacy policy said no analytics, and it was true. Adding a page counter meant reopening that promise in public: what we chose, what we refused, one commit.","2026-08-24T10:00:00.000Z",[980,971,1437],"analytics",{"path":1439,"title":1440,"description":1441,"date":1442,"author":954,"image":1443,"readingMinutes":174,"category":967,"project":1067,"tags":1444,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-one-real-release-taught-us","What One Real Release Taught Us in an Afternoon","Two crashes and one near miss within minutes of touching the real GitHub, because we had refused to fake it. The race we never met, the merge that never came.","2026-07-21T17:30:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fone-real-release-hero.jpg",[1128,1445,945,1072],"failure-modes",{"path":1447,"title":1448,"description":1449,"date":1450,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":174,"category":967,"project":968,"tags":1451,"draft":934,"series":973,"seriesOrder":144},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-the-link-looks-like-before-anyone-clicks","What the Link Looks Like Before Anyone Clicks","A link to any page on our site showed up as a bare rectangle of text. The share image is part of the page, and the build now puts one on every route.","2026-08-22T22:00:00.000Z",[970,971,972],{"path":1453,"title":1454,"description":1455,"date":1456,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":174,"category":987,"project":957,"tags":1457,"draft":934,"series":1180,"seriesOrder":126},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-the-nullable-gave-back","What the Nullable Gave Back","One file, seven behaviours held fixed, the database swapped for a Nullable: about 180 times less time inside the tests, and coverage flat to two decimals.","2026-08-29T09:00:00.000Z",[944,945,1119,1179],{"path":1459,"title":1460,"description":1461,"date":1462,"author":954,"image":936,"readingMinutes":194,"category":967,"project":968,"tags":1463,"draft":934,"series":973,"seriesOrder":229},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-we-count-and-what-we-refuse-to-know","What We Count, and What We Refuse to Know","Every system that holds anything about a visitor, in one table in the privacy policy. Writing it found a form that no longer existed and one that wrote twice.","2026-08-23T14:00:00.000Z",[980,971,1437],{"path":1465,"title":1466,"description":1467,"date":1468,"author":954,"image":1469,"readingMinutes":144,"category":931,"project":936,"tags":936,"draft":934,"series":936,"seriesOrder":936},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-good-software-starts-with-the-right-questions","Why Good Software Starts with the Right Questions","Before writing a line of code, the most impactful thing a team can do is ask better questions. Discovery is not a phase to rush. It is the foundation.","2026-01-15T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fright-questions-hero.jpg",1791216208335]