[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1492},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-inbox-that-delivers-nowhere":3,"blog-all":986},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":969,"date":970,"description":971,"draft":972,"extension":899,"image":973,"meta":974,"navigation":167,"path":975,"project":976,"readingMinutes":300,"seo":977,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978,"stem":979,"tags":980,"__hash__":985},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-inbox-that-delivers-nowhere.md","The Inbox That Delivers Nowhere","EkoHacks Team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":958},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,25,28,31,34,38,41,44,73,80,84,87,111,114,117,120,124,127,577,580,587,601,607,611,614,812,815,819,822,825,847,850,853,856,860,863,866,869,873,876,892,895,938,941,945,948,951,954],[11,12,13],"p",{},"A colleague new to the Studomia codebase got the application running this week, reached the sign in screen, and asked a fair question. What is Mailpit?",[11,15,16],{},"Nobody had told them. Nothing in the repository had either. The tool had sat on the critical path of every local sign in since the day we chose to sign people in by emailed code, and the only people who knew were the ones who no longer needed to ask.",[11,18,19],{},"This post is the answer we should have written down sooner, and the lessons that came with writing it.",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"why-a-mailbox-is-on-the-critical-path","Why a mailbox is on the critical path",[11,26,27],{},"Studomia is a learning environment we work on, and it has no passwords. A person arrives by invitation, enters their email address, and receives a six digit code. The code is the only way in.",[11,29,30],{},"That is a good decision for the people using it and an awkward one for the people building it. Every local run, every demonstration and every end to end test now depends on receiving an email. A developer's laptop has no mail server. The addresses we test with belong to nobody. And the one thing we must never do from a development machine is send a real message to a real person.",[11,32,33],{},"So the question is not whether to fake the mailbox. It is where to put the fake.",[21,35,37],{"id":36},"what-mailpit-is","What Mailpit is",[11,39,40],{},"Mailpit is a small open source email testing tool. It accepts mail the way a mail server does, keeps every message, and delivers none of them. A web page shows what arrived. An HTTP API returns the same messages as JSON.",[11,42,43],{},"We did not install it. Studomia runs on Supabase, and the Supabase command line tool starts a local stack in Docker: a database, the authentication service, an API gateway and Mailpit. The authentication service is already configured to send its mail there.",[45,46,51],"pre",{"className":47,"code":48,"language":49,"meta":50,"style":50},"language-bash shiki shiki-themes github-dark","pnpm exec supabase start\n","bash","",[52,53,54],"code",{"__ignoreMap":50},[55,56,59,63,67,70],"span",{"class":57,"line":58},"line",1,[55,60,62],{"class":61},"svObZ","pnpm",[55,64,66],{"class":65},"sU2Wk"," exec",[55,68,69],{"class":65}," supabase",[55,71,72],{"class":65}," start\n",[11,74,75,76,79],{},"Once the stack is up, the inbox is a page in the browser at ",[52,77,78],{},"http:\u002F\u002F127.0.0.1:54324",". Request a code on the sign in screen and the message appears a moment later.",[21,81,83],{"id":82},"lesson-one-keep-the-email-boring","Lesson one: keep the email boring",[11,85,86],{},"Our local email template is a single line.",[45,88,92],{"className":89,"code":90,"language":91,"meta":50,"style":50},"language-html shiki shiki-themes github-dark","\u003Cp>{{ .Token }}\u003C\u002Fp>\n","html",[52,93,94],{"__ignoreMap":50},[55,95,96,100,103,106,108],{"class":57,"line":58},[55,97,99],{"class":98},"s95oV","\u003C",[55,101,11],{"class":102},"s4JwU",[55,104,105],{"class":98},">{{ .Token }}\u003C\u002F",[55,107,11],{"class":102},[55,109,110],{"class":98},">\n",[11,112,113],{},"The body of the message is the code and nothing else. No greeting, no logo, no link.",[11,115,116],{},"This is deliberate. A person reading the inbox sees the six digits at once. A test reading the inbox needs one small pattern to find them. Every sentence we add to that template is a sentence a test has to read around, and a future change to the wording becomes a failing build that has nothing to do with signing in.",[11,118,119],{},"The template is marked in our configuration as local only. What a hosted provider sends to a real person is a separate decision, and we keep the two apart on purpose.",[21,121,123],{"id":122},"lesson-two-let-the-test-read-its-own-mail","Lesson two: let the test read its own mail",[11,125,126],{},"Our end to end test signs in the way a person does. It opens the invitation, asks for a code, and then goes to the inbox to fetch it. This is the helper, trimmed for the page.",[45,128,132],{"className":129,"code":130,"language":131,"meta":50,"style":50},"language-ts shiki shiki-themes github-dark","const syntheticEmail = `synthetic-${randomUUID()}@example.test`;\n\nconst readSyntheticOtp = async (): Promise\u003Cstring> => {\n  for (let attempt = 0; attempt \u003C 40; attempt += 1) {\n    const response = await fetch(`${mailpitUrl}\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fmessages`);\n    const mailbox = await response.json();\n    const message = mailbox.messages?.find((candidate) =>\n      candidate.To?.some(({ Address }) => Address === syntheticEmail),\n    );\n    if (message) {\n      const detail = await (\n        await fetch(`${mailpitUrl}\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fmessage\u002F${message.ID}`)\n      ).json();\n      const match = `${detail.Text ?? \"\"} ${detail.HTML ?? \"\"}`.match(\n        \u002F\\b\\d{6}\\b\u002F,\n      );\n      if (match) return match[0];\n    }\n    await wait(250);\n  }\n  throw new Error(\"Synthetic local OTP was not captured\");\n};\n","ts",[52,133,134,162,169,205,245,277,298,327,356,362,371,387,419,429,476,497,503,524,530,546,552,571],{"__ignoreMap":50},[55,135,136,140,144,147,150,153,156,159],{"class":57,"line":58},[55,137,139],{"class":138},"snl16","const",[55,141,143],{"class":142},"sDLfK"," syntheticEmail",[55,145,146],{"class":138}," =",[55,148,149],{"class":65}," `synthetic-${",[55,151,152],{"class":61},"randomUUID",[55,154,155],{"class":65},"()",[55,157,158],{"class":65},"}@example.test`",[55,160,161],{"class":98},";\n",[55,163,165],{"class":57,"line":164},2,[55,166,168],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":167},true,"\n",[55,170,172,174,177,179,182,185,188,191,193,196,199,202],{"class":57,"line":171},3,[55,173,139],{"class":138},[55,175,176],{"class":61}," readSyntheticOtp",[55,178,146],{"class":138},[55,180,181],{"class":138}," async",[55,183,184],{"class":98}," ()",[55,186,187],{"class":138},":",[55,189,190],{"class":61}," Promise",[55,192,99],{"class":98},[55,194,195],{"class":142},"string",[55,197,198],{"class":98},"> ",[55,200,201],{"class":138},"=>",[55,203,204],{"class":98}," {\n",[55,206,208,211,214,217,220,223,226,229,231,234,236,239,242],{"class":57,"line":207},4,[55,209,210],{"class":138},"  for",[55,212,213],{"class":98}," (",[55,215,216],{"class":138},"let",[55,218,219],{"class":98}," attempt ",[55,221,222],{"class":138},"=",[55,224,225],{"class":142}," 0",[55,227,228],{"class":98},"; attempt ",[55,230,99],{"class":138},[55,232,233],{"class":142}," 40",[55,235,228],{"class":98},[55,237,238],{"class":138},"+=",[55,240,241],{"class":142}," 1",[55,243,244],{"class":98},") {\n",[55,246,248,251,254,256,259,262,265,268,271,274],{"class":57,"line":247},5,[55,249,250],{"class":138},"    const",[55,252,253],{"class":142}," response",[55,255,146],{"class":138},[55,257,258],{"class":138}," await",[55,260,261],{"class":61}," fetch",[55,263,264],{"class":98},"(",[55,266,267],{"class":65},"`${",[55,269,270],{"class":98},"mailpitUrl",[55,272,273],{"class":65},"}\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fmessages`",[55,275,276],{"class":98},");\n",[55,278,280,282,285,287,289,292,295],{"class":57,"line":279},6,[55,281,250],{"class":138},[55,283,284],{"class":142}," mailbox",[55,286,146],{"class":138},[55,288,258],{"class":138},[55,290,291],{"class":98}," response.",[55,293,294],{"class":61},"json",[55,296,297],{"class":98},"();\n",[55,299,301,303,306,308,311,314,317,321,324],{"class":57,"line":300},7,[55,302,250],{"class":138},[55,304,305],{"class":142}," message",[55,307,146],{"class":138},[55,309,310],{"class":98}," mailbox.messages?.",[55,312,313],{"class":61},"find",[55,315,316],{"class":98},"((",[55,318,320],{"class":319},"s9osk","candidate",[55,322,323],{"class":98},") ",[55,325,326],{"class":138},"=>\n",[55,328,330,333,336,339,342,345,347,350,353],{"class":57,"line":329},8,[55,331,332],{"class":98},"      candidate.To?.",[55,334,335],{"class":61},"some",[55,337,338],{"class":98},"(({ ",[55,340,341],{"class":319},"Address",[55,343,344],{"class":98}," }) ",[55,346,201],{"class":138},[55,348,349],{"class":98}," Address ",[55,351,352],{"class":138},"===",[55,354,355],{"class":98}," syntheticEmail),\n",[55,357,359],{"class":57,"line":358},9,[55,360,361],{"class":98},"    );\n",[55,363,365,368],{"class":57,"line":364},10,[55,366,367],{"class":138},"    if",[55,369,370],{"class":98}," (message) {\n",[55,372,374,377,380,382,384],{"class":57,"line":373},11,[55,375,376],{"class":138},"      const",[55,378,379],{"class":142}," detail",[55,381,146],{"class":138},[55,383,258],{"class":138},[55,385,386],{"class":98}," (\n",[55,388,390,393,395,397,399,401,404,407,410,413,416],{"class":57,"line":389},12,[55,391,392],{"class":138},"        await",[55,394,261],{"class":61},[55,396,264],{"class":98},[55,398,267],{"class":65},[55,400,270],{"class":98},[55,402,403],{"class":65},"}\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fmessage\u002F${",[55,405,406],{"class":98},"message",[55,408,409],{"class":65},".",[55,411,412],{"class":142},"ID",[55,414,415],{"class":65},"}`",[55,417,418],{"class":98},")\n",[55,420,422,425,427],{"class":57,"line":421},13,[55,423,424],{"class":98},"      ).",[55,426,294],{"class":61},[55,428,297],{"class":98},[55,430,432,434,437,439,442,445,447,450,453,456,458,460,463,465,468,470,473],{"class":57,"line":431},14,[55,433,376],{"class":138},[55,435,436],{"class":142}," match",[55,438,146],{"class":138},[55,440,441],{"class":65}," `${",[55,443,444],{"class":98},"detail",[55,446,409],{"class":65},[55,448,449],{"class":98},"Text",[55,451,452],{"class":138}," ??",[55,454,455],{"class":65}," \"\"} ${",[55,457,444],{"class":98},[55,459,409],{"class":65},[55,461,462],{"class":142},"HTML",[55,464,452],{"class":138},[55,466,467],{"class":65}," \"\"}`",[55,469,409],{"class":98},[55,471,472],{"class":61},"match",[55,474,475],{"class":98},"(\n",[55,477,479,482,485,488,491,494],{"class":57,"line":478},15,[55,480,481],{"class":65},"        \u002F",[55,483,484],{"class":138},"\\b",[55,486,487],{"class":142},"\\d",[55,489,490],{"class":138},"{6}\\b",[55,492,493],{"class":65},"\u002F",[55,495,496],{"class":98},",\n",[55,498,500],{"class":57,"line":499},16,[55,501,502],{"class":98},"      );\n",[55,504,506,509,512,515,518,521],{"class":57,"line":505},17,[55,507,508],{"class":138},"      if",[55,510,511],{"class":98}," (match) ",[55,513,514],{"class":138},"return",[55,516,517],{"class":98}," match[",[55,519,520],{"class":142},"0",[55,522,523],{"class":98},"];\n",[55,525,527],{"class":57,"line":526},18,[55,528,529],{"class":98},"    }\n",[55,531,533,536,539,541,544],{"class":57,"line":532},19,[55,534,535],{"class":138},"    await",[55,537,538],{"class":61}," wait",[55,540,264],{"class":98},[55,542,543],{"class":142},"250",[55,545,276],{"class":98},[55,547,549],{"class":57,"line":548},20,[55,550,551],{"class":98},"  }\n",[55,553,555,558,561,564,566,569],{"class":57,"line":554},21,[55,556,557],{"class":138},"  throw",[55,559,560],{"class":138}," new",[55,562,563],{"class":61}," Error",[55,565,264],{"class":98},[55,567,568],{"class":65},"\"Synthetic local OTP was not captured\"",[55,570,276],{"class":98},[55,572,574],{"class":57,"line":573},22,[55,575,576],{"class":98},"};\n",[11,578,579],{},"Three choices in that helper earned their place.",[11,581,582,586],{},[583,584,585],"strong",{},"A fresh address for every run."," The address contains a random identifier, so the test only ever finds its own message. Yesterday's run, a colleague's run and a half finished manual session can all share one inbox without confusing each other. We never clear the inbox to make a test pass.",[11,588,589,592,593,596,597,600],{},[583,590,591],{},"A reserved domain."," Every synthetic address ends in ",[52,594,595],{},"example.test",". The ",[52,598,599],{},".test"," ending is reserved and can never belong to a real mailbox. If a configuration mistake one day points local code at a real mail provider, the message has nowhere to go.",[11,602,603,606],{},[583,604,605],{},"A deadline with a name."," Email is asynchronous even when the mail server is a container on the same machine. The helper looks forty times, a quarter of a second apart, and then fails with a sentence that says what is missing. Ten seconds is long enough for a slow laptop and short enough that a broken stack is reported as a broken stack.",[21,608,610],{"id":609},"lesson-three-a-test-that-reads-mail-must-know-where-it-is","Lesson three: a test that reads mail must know where it is",[11,612,613],{},"A test that creates invitations, reads inboxes and signs in is a powerful thing to point at the wrong environment. Ours refuses to start unless every address it is given is on the local machine and on the port we expect.",[45,615,617],{"className":129,"code":616,"language":131,"meta":50,"style":50},"const requireLocalUrl = (name: string, expectedPort: string): string => {\n  const value = process.env[name];\n  if (!value) throw new Error(`${name} is required`);\n  const url = new URL(value);\n  if (\n    ![\"127.0.0.1\", \"localhost\", \"::1\"].includes(url.hostname) ||\n    url.port !== expectedPort\n  ) {\n    throw new Error(`${name} must use the expected loopback port`);\n  }\n  return value;\n};\n",[52,618,619,660,673,704,721,727,760,771,776,796,800,808],{"__ignoreMap":50},[55,620,621,623,626,628,630,633,635,638,641,644,646,648,651,653,655,658],{"class":57,"line":58},[55,622,139],{"class":138},[55,624,625],{"class":61}," requireLocalUrl",[55,627,146],{"class":138},[55,629,213],{"class":98},[55,631,632],{"class":319},"name",[55,634,187],{"class":138},[55,636,637],{"class":142}," string",[55,639,640],{"class":98},", ",[55,642,643],{"class":319},"expectedPort",[55,645,187],{"class":138},[55,647,637],{"class":142},[55,649,650],{"class":98},")",[55,652,187],{"class":138},[55,654,637],{"class":142},[55,656,657],{"class":138}," =>",[55,659,204],{"class":98},[55,661,662,665,668,670],{"class":57,"line":164},[55,663,664],{"class":138},"  const",[55,666,667],{"class":142}," value",[55,669,146],{"class":138},[55,671,672],{"class":98}," process.env[name];\n",[55,674,675,678,680,683,686,689,691,693,695,697,699,702],{"class":57,"line":171},[55,676,677],{"class":138},"  if",[55,679,213],{"class":98},[55,681,682],{"class":138},"!",[55,684,685],{"class":98},"value) ",[55,687,688],{"class":138},"throw",[55,690,560],{"class":138},[55,692,563],{"class":61},[55,694,264],{"class":98},[55,696,267],{"class":65},[55,698,632],{"class":98},[55,700,701],{"class":65},"} is required`",[55,703,276],{"class":98},[55,705,706,708,711,713,715,718],{"class":57,"line":207},[55,707,664],{"class":138},[55,709,710],{"class":142}," url",[55,712,146],{"class":138},[55,714,560],{"class":138},[55,716,717],{"class":61}," URL",[55,719,720],{"class":98},"(value);\n",[55,722,723,725],{"class":57,"line":247},[55,724,677],{"class":138},[55,726,386],{"class":98},[55,728,729,732,735,738,740,743,745,748,751,754,757],{"class":57,"line":279},[55,730,731],{"class":138},"    !",[55,733,734],{"class":98},"[",[55,736,737],{"class":65},"\"127.0.0.1\"",[55,739,640],{"class":98},[55,741,742],{"class":65},"\"localhost\"",[55,744,640],{"class":98},[55,746,747],{"class":65},"\"::1\"",[55,749,750],{"class":98},"].",[55,752,753],{"class":61},"includes",[55,755,756],{"class":98},"(url.hostname) ",[55,758,759],{"class":138},"||\n",[55,761,762,765,768],{"class":57,"line":300},[55,763,764],{"class":98},"    url.port ",[55,766,767],{"class":138},"!==",[55,769,770],{"class":98}," expectedPort\n",[55,772,773],{"class":57,"line":329},[55,774,775],{"class":98},"  ) {\n",[55,777,778,781,783,785,787,789,791,794],{"class":57,"line":358},[55,779,780],{"class":138},"    throw",[55,782,560],{"class":138},[55,784,563],{"class":61},[55,786,264],{"class":98},[55,788,267],{"class":65},[55,790,632],{"class":98},[55,792,793],{"class":65},"} must use the expected loopback port`",[55,795,276],{"class":98},[55,797,798],{"class":57,"line":364},[55,799,551],{"class":98},[55,801,802,805],{"class":57,"line":373},[55,803,804],{"class":138},"  return",[55,806,807],{"class":98}," value;\n",[55,809,810],{"class":57,"line":389},[55,811,576],{"class":98},[11,813,814],{},"The check runs before any browser opens. It costs a dozen lines and removes a whole category of accident.",[21,816,818],{"id":817},"lesson-four-one-service-two-names","Lesson four: one service, two names",[11,820,821],{},"Here is the part that cost our colleague the most time.",[11,823,824],{},"The tool is called Mailpit. Our configuration file calls it something else.",[45,826,830],{"className":827,"code":828,"language":829,"meta":50,"style":50},"language-toml shiki shiki-themes github-dark","[inbucket]\nenabled = true\nport = 54324\n","toml",[52,831,832,837,842],{"__ignoreMap":50},[55,833,834],{"class":57,"line":58},[55,835,836],{},"[inbucket]\n",[55,838,839],{"class":57,"line":164},[55,840,841],{},"enabled = true\n",[55,843,844],{"class":57,"line":171},[55,845,846],{},"port = 54324\n",[11,848,849],{},"Inbucket is the mail catcher the Supabase tooling used before it moved to Mailpit. The configuration section kept the old name, and so did the container. Ask the tool for its status and it lists an Inbucket address alongside a Mailpit one.",[11,851,852],{},"So a search of the repository for \"mailpit\" finds test code and no configuration. A search for \"inbucket\" finds configuration and no explanation. Neither search finds a sentence telling a newcomer that their sign in code is waiting in a browser tab.",[11,854,855],{},"The names are not ours to change. The sentence is.",[21,857,859],{"id":858},"what-the-inbox-does-not-prove","What the inbox does not prove",[11,861,862],{},"Mailpit proves that our application asked for a message and that the code inside it works. It stops there, and so should our claims.",[11,864,865],{},"It does not prove that a real provider will accept the message, that the message will pass a spam filter, or that what a person receives in production reads well on a phone. Those are questions about delivery, and nothing on a laptop can answer them. A green local run is evidence that signing in works. It is not evidence that the email arrives.",[11,867,868],{},"It is also not a safe place. The inbox asks for no password by default, and every message in it is a working key to the local stack. That is acceptable on a developer's own machine and a poor idea anywhere others can reach.",[21,870,872],{"id":871},"the-move-you-can-reproduce","The move you can reproduce",[11,874,875],{},"If your application signs people in by email, four things make the local experience dependable.",[877,878,879,883,886,889],"ol",{},[880,881,882],"li",{},"Run a mail catcher as part of the stack, started by the same command as the database.",[880,884,885],{},"Make the local message as plain as it can be. The code, alone.",[880,887,888],{},"Give every test run its own address on a reserved domain, and let the test fetch its own code against a deadline.",[880,890,891],{},"Write one paragraph in the README, beside the start command, that says where the code will appear.",[11,893,894],{},"The fourth is the one we had skipped. This is the paragraph we were missing.",[45,896,900],{"className":897,"code":898,"language":899,"meta":50,"style":50},"language-md shiki shiki-themes github-dark","## Signing in locally\n\nSign in codes are never sent to a real inbox. After `pnpm exec supabase start`,\nopen http:\u002F\u002F127.0.0.1:54324 and read the code there. The tool is Mailpit.\nThe configuration file calls it `inbucket`.\n","md",[52,901,902,908,912,922,927],{"__ignoreMap":50},[55,903,904],{"class":57,"line":58},[55,905,907],{"class":906},"sIZOC","## Signing in locally\n",[55,909,910],{"class":57,"line":164},[55,911,168],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":167},[55,913,914,917,920],{"class":57,"line":171},[55,915,916],{"class":98},"Sign in codes are never sent to a real inbox. After ",[55,918,919],{"class":142},"`pnpm exec supabase start`",[55,921,496],{"class":98},[55,923,924],{"class":57,"line":207},[55,925,926],{"class":98},"open http:\u002F\u002F127.0.0.1:54324 and read the code there. The tool is Mailpit.\n",[55,928,929,932,935],{"class":57,"line":247},[55,930,931],{"class":98},"The configuration file calls it ",[55,933,934],{"class":142},"`inbucket`",[55,936,937],{"class":98},".\n",[11,939,940],{},"Four lines. They would have saved a morning.",[21,942,944],{"id":943},"why-we-work-this-way","Why we work this way",[11,946,947],{},"The tools a team stops noticing are the ones a newcomer trips over. Mailpit had become furniture to us: always there, never mentioned, holding up something important.",[11,949,950],{},"\"What is this?\" is the cheapest review a codebase will ever receive, and only someone who does not know yet can give it. We tell learners in the Dojo that a question like that is a contribution. This week a colleague handed the lesson back to us, and they were right.",[11,952,953],{},"The inbox still delivers nowhere. The explanation, at last, has arrived.",[955,956,957],"style",{},"html pre.shiki code .svObZ, html code.shiki .svObZ{--shiki-default:#B392F0}html pre.shiki code .sU2Wk, html code.shiki .sU2Wk{--shiki-default:#9ECBFF}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 .snl16, html code.shiki .snl16{--shiki-default:#F97583}html pre.shiki code .sDLfK, html code.shiki .sDLfK{--shiki-default:#79B8FF}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 .s4JwU, html code.shiki .s4JwU{--shiki-default:#85E89D}html pre.shiki code .sIZOC, html code.shiki .sIZOC{--shiki-default:#79B8FF;--shiki-default-font-weight:bold}",{"title":50,"searchDepth":164,"depth":164,"links":959},[960,961,962,963,964,965,966,967,968],{"id":23,"depth":164,"text":24},{"id":36,"depth":164,"text":37},{"id":82,"depth":164,"text":83},{"id":122,"depth":164,"text":123},{"id":609,"depth":164,"text":610},{"id":817,"depth":164,"text":818},{"id":858,"depth":164,"text":859},{"id":871,"depth":164,"text":872},{"id":943,"depth":164,"text":944},"Testing and TDD","2026-09-28T09:00:00.000Z","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.",false,"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Finbox-that-delivers-nowhere-hero.jpg",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-inbox-that-delivers-nowhere","Studomia",{"title":5,"description":971},null,"blog\u002Fthe-inbox-that-delivers-nowhere",[981,982,983,984],"mailpit","local-development","passwordless","testing","risfvflkhOFE2Bv1hbnPuDdXz5qP8ZOqtDSyES5s-Hc",[987,999,1011,1018,1028,1034,1043,1050,1057,1066,1073,1082,1089,1096,1109,1118,1125,1132,1141,1149,1157,1167,1174,1182,1189,1195,1201,1210,1218,1228,1236,1243,1253,1261,1267,1277,1286,1294,1302,1310,1318,1325,1327,1335,1343,1350,1356,1363,1372,1380,1387,1394,1403,1409,1417,1423,1431,1437,1446,1453,1460,1468,1474,1480,1486],{"path":988,"title":989,"description":990,"date":991,"author":6,"image":992,"readingMinutes":279,"category":993,"project":994,"tags":995,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fa-branch-is-inventory","A Branch Is Inventory","Unintegrated code is stock in a warehouse, and it depreciates. Our branch was one merge behind the trunk and that was enough for a conflict. What waiting costs.","2026-07-09T09:38:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fa-branch-is-inventory-hero.jpg","Craft and Practice","The Dojo",[996,997,998],"git","continuous-integration","craft",{"path":1000,"title":1001,"description":1002,"date":1003,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1006,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":171},"\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. The sitemap is drawn from the build, and it found a draft.","2026-08-22T20:30:00.000Z","Shipping and Operations","ekohacks.com",[1007,1008,1009],"seo","operations","nuxt","From Invisible to Findable",{"path":1012,"title":1013,"description":1014,"date":1015,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1016,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":358},"\u002Fblog\u002Fa-privacy-policy-you-can-diff","A Privacy Policy You Can Diff","Our legal pages are files in the same repository as the site. 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",[1017,1008,1009],"privacy",{"path":1019,"title":1020,"description":1021,"date":1022,"author":6,"image":1023,"readingMinutes":300,"category":969,"project":1024,"tags":1025,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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","EkoLite",[1026,984,1027],"nullables","websocket",{"path":1029,"title":1030,"description":1031,"date":1032,"author":6,"image":1033,"readingMinutes":207,"category":993,"project":978,"tags":978,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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. They are the ones that have learned how to learn together.","2026-02-05T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fteams-that-learn-together-hero.jpg",{"path":1035,"title":1036,"description":1037,"date":1038,"author":6,"image":1039,"readingMinutes":207,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1040,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fderived-state-recompute","The Fix Was Merged, but the Numbers Were Still Wrong","We fixed a scoring bug, reviewed it, merged it, and production still showed the old numbers. Derived data is a cache that goes stale, and it must be recomputed.","2026-07-08T21:43:55.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fderived-state-recompute-hero.jpg",[1008,1041,1042],"deployment","idempotency",{"path":1044,"title":1045,"description":1046,"date":1047,"author":1048,"image":1049,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":978,"tags":978,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fdockerising-nestjs-nuxt-monorepo-with-pnpm","Dockerising a NestJS and Nuxt Monorepo with pnpm","Dockerising a NestJS and Nuxt monorepo with pnpm: separate multi stage Dockerfiles for development and production, one Compose file, reproducible environments.","2026-02-09T09:00:00.000Z","Ogochukwu Okpala","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fdocker-monorepo-hero.png",{"path":1051,"title":1052,"description":1053,"date":1054,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1055,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":1056},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffifty-posts-and-an-empty-robots-txt","Fifty Posts and an Empty robots.txt","Our site scored 100 for SEO and nobody could find it. The audit that started a series on making a site findable, and on what measuring visitors costs them.","2026-08-21T14:30:00.000Z",[1007,1008,998],0,{"path":1058,"title":1059,"description":1060,"date":1061,"author":6,"image":1062,"readingMinutes":207,"category":993,"project":994,"tags":1063,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[998,1064,1065],"fastify","security",{"path":1067,"title":1068,"description":1069,"date":1070,"author":6,"image":1071,"readingMinutes":247,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1072,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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. Everything on your machine is a photograph of the trunk.","2026-07-09T09:22:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fintegrate-against-the-trunk-hero.jpg",[996,997,1008],{"path":1074,"title":1075,"description":1076,"date":1077,"author":6,"image":1078,"readingMinutes":207,"category":993,"project":994,"tags":1079,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Flandmines","Landmines","Most CLAUDE.md files grow because documenting a convention feels like progress. Ours holds landmines only: facts the code cannot tell you, costly to step on.","2026-04-17T10:15:06.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Flandmines-hero.jpg",[998,1080,1081],"documentation","ai-agents",{"path":1083,"title":1084,"description":1085,"date":1086,"author":6,"image":1087,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1088,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fnever-break-the-build","Never Break the Build","If the software worked five minutes ago, only five minutes of change can be to blame. What a green trunk buys, who pays for it, and a check that could not fail.","2026-07-09T09:54:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fnever-break-the-build-hero.jpg",[997,1008,984],{"path":1090,"title":1091,"description":1092,"date":1093,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1094,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":164},"\u002Fblog\u002Fone-address-per-page","One Address per Page","Every page on our site answered with a redirect before it answered with a page. How we made the build emit one address, declare it, and check it live.","2026-08-22T18:30:00.000Z",[1007,1008,1009,1095],"netlify",{"path":1097,"title":1098,"description":1099,"date":1100,"author":6,"image":1101,"readingMinutes":207,"category":1102,"project":1103,"tags":1104,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fone-command-three-policies","One Command, Three Policies, Zero Duplication","Preflight, cut and ship each worked alone before one command composed them. Why the composition layer is forty lines, and how the scrollback became the record.","2026-07-21T17:20:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fone-command-three-policies-hero.jpg","Design and Architecture","The EkoHacks CLI",[1105,1106,1107,1108],"composition","cli-design","narration","encoding-the-release",{"path":1110,"title":1111,"description":1112,"date":1113,"author":6,"image":1114,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1102,"project":1024,"tags":1115,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fone-way-to-fail","One Way to Fail","Closing the convergence so an upload fails in the same error shape as every other call, mostly by deleting the code that made the two shapes differ.","2026-07-20T10:05:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fone-way-to-fail-hero.jpg",[1116,1026,1117],"design","error handling",{"path":1119,"title":1120,"description":1121,"date":1122,"author":6,"image":1123,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1124,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fready-to-ship-not-ready-to-release","Ready to Ship, Not Ready to Release","Most teams hide a delay between saying done and being able to ship. Being ready to release at any moment, and why our deploy ships the commit that was tested.","2026-07-09T10:02:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fready-to-ship-hero.jpg",[997,1041,1008],{"path":1126,"title":1127,"description":1128,"date":1129,"author":6,"image":1130,"readingMinutes":279,"category":993,"project":994,"tags":1131,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Frebase-or-merge-is-the-wrong-argument","Rebase or Merge Is the Wrong Argument","Both commands reconcile the same commits and hit the same conflicts. What differs is when you resolve them. The loud argument hides a quiet one: long branches.","2026-07-09T09:30:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Frebase-or-merge-hero.jpg",[996,997,998],{"path":1133,"title":1134,"description":1135,"date":1136,"author":6,"image":1137,"readingMinutes":171,"category":1102,"project":994,"tags":1138,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Freconstructing-the-past","Reconstructing the Past","Connect a repository with a year of history and a trend curve reaches back months. How a system shows a past it never saw, recomputed from one source of truth.","2026-07-07T21:26:35.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Freconstructing-the-past-hero.jpg",[1116,1139,1140],"data","onboarding",{"path":1142,"title":1143,"description":1144,"date":1145,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":969,"project":1103,"tags":1146,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fretiring-a-board","Retiring a Board: User Testing a CLI Before You Ship It","An afternoon of user testing against a real Linear board, and the four findings a green test suite could never have written.","2026-08-01T10:20:00.000Z",[1147,1026,1106,1148],"user-testing","linear",{"path":1150,"title":1151,"description":1152,"date":1153,"author":6,"image":1154,"readingMinutes":247,"category":969,"project":994,"tags":1155,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fretrofitting-testing-without-mocks","Retrofitting Testing Without Mocks","The server had 37 vi.mock calls and no test that touched the database. Five steps to remove every mock with Nullables: real logic, real data, sociable tests.","2026-04-17T12:30:37.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fretrofitting-without-mocks-hero.jpg",[984,1026,1156],"mocks",{"path":1158,"title":1159,"description":1160,"date":1161,"author":6,"image":1162,"readingMinutes":207,"category":1004,"project":1103,"tags":1163,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Frun-it-by-hand-until-it-is-boring","Run It by Hand Until It Is Boring","Releasing EkoLite was a document before it was a command, and stayed one until running it by hand had nothing left to teach us. Why we automate operations last.","2026-07-21T17:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Frun-it-by-hand-hero.jpg",[1164,1165,1166,1108],"automation","releasing","process",{"path":1168,"title":1169,"description":1170,"date":1136,"author":6,"image":1171,"readingMinutes":171,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1172,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fsafe-to-run-twice","Safe to Run Twice","Connect the same repository twice, or let a webhook redeliver an event. Idempotency in two halves: writes through a natural key, side effects behind a ledger.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fsafe-to-run-twice-hero.jpg",[1008,1042,1173],"webhooks",{"path":1175,"title":1176,"description":1177,"date":1178,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1179,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fsource-or-execute","Source or Execute","Our dojo laptops are provisioned by one bash script of nearly twelve hundred lines. Splitting it into modules is two decisions, not one, and we chose a hybrid.","2026-08-01T09:00:00.000Z",[1180,1181,1105,1008],"shell","provisioning",{"path":1183,"title":1184,"description":1185,"date":978,"author":1186,"image":1187,"readingMinutes":58,"category":1102,"project":1188,"tags":978,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fstage-then-transform-why-your-crawler-should-never-touch-production-tables","Stage, Then Transform: Crawlers Stay Out of Production","Where data from an external source lands first decides whether the pipeline still works in six months. The staging pattern, shown with a crawler we build now.","EkoHacks","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fstage-then-transform-hero.jpg","Propi",{"path":1190,"title":1191,"description":1192,"date":1193,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":969,"project":1005,"tags":1194,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":247},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftelling-the-machine-what-the-page-is","Telling the Machine What the Page Is","Structured data on every post, and a test that runs after each build and fails it when a page lacks what a crawler needs. First run: forty nine problems.","2026-08-22T23:30:00.000Z",[1007,984,1009],{"path":1196,"title":1197,"description":1198,"date":1199,"author":6,"image":1200,"readingMinutes":164,"category":969,"project":978,"tags":978,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftest-driven-development-is-not-about-tests","Test Driven Development Is Not About Tests","TDD is widely misunderstood. It is not a testing strategy. It is a design tool that produces simpler, more focused code by making you think before you type.","2026-02-01T09:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ftdd-not-about-tests-hero.jpg",{"path":1202,"title":1203,"description":1204,"date":1205,"author":6,"image":1206,"readingMinutes":247,"category":969,"project":1103,"tags":1207,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftesting-a-release-without-releasing","Testing a Release Without Releasing","How to test watch CI until green, then merge, hundreds of times a day with no CI in sight. Nullables, output trackers, and a fake that copies GitHub shapes.","2026-07-21T17:10:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ftesting-a-release-without-releasing-hero.jpg",[1026,1208,1209,1108],"testing-without-mocks","james-shore",{"path":1211,"title":1212,"description":1213,"date":1214,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":969,"project":994,"tags":1215,"draft":972,"series":1217,"seriesOrder":58},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-best-coverage-number-in-the-room","The Best Coverage Number in the Room","Same commit, same spec, same test count. The mocked suite ran 5.6 times faster, covered 3.5 fewer points of real code, and posted the best branch coverage.","2026-08-27T12:00:00.000Z",[984,1026,1156,1216],"coverage","What Mocks Cost",{"path":1219,"title":1220,"description":1221,"date":1222,"author":6,"image":1223,"readingMinutes":247,"category":1102,"project":1024,"tags":1224,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-bug-that-resolved-successfully","The Bug That Resolved Successfully","A bug that threw no error and dropped every document because the client guessed a collection from a name. The fix was one honest field on the ready message.","2026-07-05T10:16:16.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbug-resolved-successfully-hero.jpg",[1225,1226,984,1227],"protocol","pubsub","tdd",{"path":1229,"title":1230,"description":1231,"date":1232,"author":6,"image":1233,"readingMinutes":279,"category":969,"project":1024,"tags":1234,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-clock-that-learned-to-walk","The Clock That Learned to Walk","A stub clock that teleported to the end of the window instead of passing through time, so a timer set inside another never fired. A real clock model fixed it.","2026-07-07T22:44:42.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-clock-that-learned-to-walk-hero.jpg",[1026,984,1235],"refactoring",{"path":1237,"title":1238,"description":1239,"date":1240,"author":6,"image":1241,"readingMinutes":247,"category":993,"project":994,"tags":1242,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-conflict-nobody-wrote","The Conflict Nobody Wrote","A pull request conflicted in a file neither author had typed into. A generated document recorded test line numbers, both branches shifted them, git merges text.","2026-07-09T09:14:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-conflict-nobody-wrote-hero.jpg",[996,997,998],{"path":1244,"title":1245,"description":1246,"date":1247,"author":6,"image":1248,"readingMinutes":329,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1249,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-container-that-wasnt-there","The Container That Wasn't There","Production served HTML where the browser asked for JavaScript, and nothing in our code had changed. A week debugging a platform we cannot see inside.","2026-07-17T14:30:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcontainer-that-wasnt-there-hero.jpg",[1008,1250,1251,1252],"debugging","european-tech","community",{"path":1254,"title":1255,"description":1256,"date":1257,"author":6,"image":1258,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1102,"project":1024,"tags":1259,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-design-we-never-drew","The Design We Never Drew","How the upload path in EkoLite arrived rather than being drawn, and the two habits, test first and integrate always, that turn an emerging shape into a design.","2026-07-20T10:00:00.000Z","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-design-we-never-drew-hero.jpg",[1116,1227,1260],"continuous integration",{"path":1262,"title":1263,"description":1264,"date":1265,"author":6,"image":1266,"readingMinutes":207,"category":993,"project":978,"tags":978,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-dojo-way-deliberate-practice-for-software-developers","The Dojo Way: Deliberate Practice for Software Developers","Most developers learn on the job, and the job rarely teaches the fundamentals. 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":1268,"title":1269,"description":1270,"date":1271,"author":6,"image":1272,"readingMinutes":300,"category":993,"project":994,"tags":1273,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1274,1275,1276,1148],"graphql","stories","xp",{"path":1278,"title":1279,"description":1280,"date":1281,"author":6,"image":1282,"readingMinutes":247,"category":969,"project":1103,"tags":1283,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1227,1284,1285,1108],"red-first","code-review",{"path":1287,"title":1288,"description":1289,"date":1290,"author":6,"image":1291,"readingMinutes":247,"category":1004,"project":1103,"tags":1292,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1165,1293,996,1108],"preflight",{"path":1295,"title":1296,"description":1297,"date":1298,"author":6,"image":1299,"readingMinutes":247,"category":1004,"project":1024,"tags":1300,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1301,1026,984],"shutdown",{"path":1303,"title":1304,"description":1305,"date":1306,"author":6,"image":1307,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":1024,"tags":1308,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1309,984,998],"packaging",{"path":1311,"title":1312,"description":1313,"date":1314,"author":6,"image":1315,"readingMinutes":207,"category":1102,"project":1103,"tags":1316,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1164,1317,1116,1108],"human-in-the-loop",{"path":1319,"title":1320,"description":1321,"date":1322,"author":6,"image":1323,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1324,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[997,1008,998],{"path":975,"title":5,"description":971,"date":970,"author":6,"image":973,"readingMinutes":300,"category":969,"project":976,"tags":1326,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},[981,982,983,984],{"path":1328,"title":1329,"description":1330,"date":1331,"author":6,"image":1332,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":1024,"tags":1333,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1301,1008,1334],"signals",{"path":1336,"title":1337,"description":1338,"date":1339,"author":6,"image":1340,"readingMinutes":329,"category":993,"project":1024,"tags":1341,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1285,1235,1342,984],"teaching",{"path":1344,"title":1345,"description":1346,"date":1347,"author":6,"image":1348,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1102,"project":1024,"tags":1349,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1116,1226,1026],{"path":1351,"title":1352,"description":1353,"date":1354,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1355,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":58},"\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",[1007,1008,1009],{"path":1357,"title":1358,"description":1359,"date":1360,"author":6,"image":1361,"readingMinutes":329,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1362,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1008,1250,1251,1252],{"path":1364,"title":1365,"description":1366,"date":1367,"author":6,"image":1368,"readingMinutes":207,"category":993,"project":1103,"tags":1369,"draft":167,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1165,1370,1371,1108],"dogfooding","acceptance-testing",{"path":1373,"title":1374,"description":1375,"date":1376,"author":6,"image":1377,"readingMinutes":300,"category":969,"project":1024,"tags":1378,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[984,1026,1379],"scriptrunner",{"path":1381,"title":1382,"description":1383,"date":1384,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":329,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1385,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":279},"\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",[1007,1008,1386],"performance",{"path":1388,"title":1389,"description":1390,"date":1391,"author":6,"image":1392,"readingMinutes":300,"category":969,"project":1024,"tags":1393,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[984,1026,1027],{"path":1395,"title":1396,"description":1397,"date":1398,"author":1186,"image":1399,"readingMinutes":279,"category":993,"project":1400,"tags":1401,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[998,1402,1139,1342],"content",{"path":1404,"title":1405,"description":1406,"date":1222,"author":6,"image":1407,"readingMinutes":247,"category":969,"project":1024,"tags":1408,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1026,984,998,1342],{"path":1410,"title":1411,"description":1412,"date":1398,"author":1186,"image":1413,"readingMinutes":207,"category":993,"project":1400,"tags":1414,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1415,996,1342,1416],"workflow","accessibility",{"path":1418,"title":1419,"description":1420,"date":1421,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":969,"project":994,"tags":1422,"draft":972,"series":1217,"seriesOrder":164},"\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",[984,1026,1156,1216],{"path":1424,"title":1425,"description":1426,"date":1427,"author":6,"image":1428,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1429,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1008,1042,1430],"observability",{"path":1432,"title":1433,"description":1434,"date":1435,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":969,"project":994,"tags":1436,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1416,984,1116,998],{"path":1438,"title":1439,"description":1440,"date":1441,"author":6,"image":1442,"readingMinutes":171,"category":1102,"project":994,"tags":1443,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1116,1444,1445],"validation","typescript",{"path":1447,"title":1448,"description":1449,"date":1450,"author":6,"image":1451,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":994,"tags":1452,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[997,1008,1041],{"path":1454,"title":1455,"description":1456,"date":1457,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1458,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":300},"\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",[1017,1008,1459],"analytics",{"path":1461,"title":1462,"description":1463,"date":1464,"author":6,"image":1465,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":1103,"tags":1466,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",[1165,1467,1026,1108],"failure-modes",{"path":1469,"title":1470,"description":1471,"date":1472,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1473,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":207},"\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",[1007,1008,1009],{"path":1475,"title":1476,"description":1477,"date":1478,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":279,"category":969,"project":994,"tags":1479,"draft":972,"series":1217,"seriesOrder":171},"\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",[984,1026,1156,1216],{"path":1481,"title":1482,"description":1483,"date":1484,"author":6,"image":978,"readingMinutes":300,"category":1004,"project":1005,"tags":1485,"draft":972,"series":1010,"seriesOrder":329},"\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",[1017,1008,1459],{"path":1487,"title":1488,"description":1489,"date":1490,"author":6,"image":1491,"readingMinutes":207,"category":1102,"project":978,"tags":978,"draft":972,"series":978,"seriesOrder":978},"\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",1790598065616]