[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":842},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-long-way-round":3,"blog-all":346},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":329,"date":330,"description":331,"draft":332,"extension":333,"image":334,"meta":335,"navigation":112,"path":336,"project":337,"readingMinutes":187,"seo":338,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339,"stem":340,"tags":341,"__hash__":345},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-long-way-round.md","The Long Way Round","EkoHacks Team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":323},"minimark",[10,14,17,22,25,33,36,40,43,46,49,52,56,59,62,65,68,72,75,313,319],[11,12,13],"p",{},"A method can run a script now, but a script that runs and hands its answer back to one caller is an ordinary thing that any framework gives you. This is the post where the number a script computes finds its way to the screen, and it gets there by a route you might not expect.",[11,15,16],{},"Here is the shape. Upload a file with a sequence in it. Ask the server to count the C's. Watch the number appear next to the file. That is the whole feature, and it is smaller than it sounds, because every piece it needs was already standing. EkoLite, our small real time backend, could already take an upload. It could already run a method over a socket. It could already stream a document to a subscribed client as Mongo changed. The only new thing is the joining, and the joining hides one decision that is the whole reason EkoLite exists.",[18,19,21],"h2",{"id":20},"the-short-way-and-the-long-way","The short way and the long way",[11,23,24],{},"The method takes the id of an uploaded file. It looks the file up, runs the count script against it, reads the number the script printed, and hands that number back to whoever called. So far, so ordinary. A client calls a function on the server, the function returns a value, the value comes back. If that were the end of it, the count would land in the caller's promise and nowhere else.",[11,26,27,28,32],{},"But that is not how the count reaches the screen. Look at what the method does with the number before it returns it: it writes it onto the file's own document in Mongo. And the client is not watching for a return value at all. It is subscribed to the files collection, the same subscription that drew the list in the first place. When the document gains a ",[29,30,31],"code",{},"countC"," field, the change streams down that subscription, the local store updates, and the row shows the number. The count arrived, but not through the door the client knocked on.",[11,34,35],{},"So why write it to the database when the method already returned it? Because a return value is the short way, and the short way is a dead end for everything that matters here.",[18,37,39],{"id":38},"what-the-long-way-buys","What the long way buys",[11,41,42],{},"Return the count and exactly one caller sees it, once. Write it to the document and everyone looking at that file sees it, because the count is now a fact about the file rather than a private reply to one request. Open the page in a second window and the number is there too, with no second call.",[11,44,45],{},"Return the count and it is gone the moment you stop holding the promise. Write it to the document and it persists. Reload the page and the count is still on the row, streamed back on reconnect through the same subscription that fills the list. Nobody runs the script again.",[11,47,48],{},"Return the count and whoever triggered the analysis has to be the one to show it. Write it to the document and the trigger and the display come apart. A button clicks it today. A batch job could click it tomorrow. The screen does not care who asked, it just watches the collection.",[11,50,51],{},"That is what reactivity is in EkoLite, said plainly: a result becomes reactive by being written into a collection somebody is subscribed to. There is no other channel. If the method only returned the count, we would have built an ordinary request and response, the kind any framework hands you. Writing it back is the difference between that and the thing EkoLite is actually for. The short way works. The long way is the point.",[18,53,55],{"id":54},"proving-a-loop-with-no-database-and-no-python","Proving a loop with no database and no python",[11,57,58],{},"Here is the part that would make you nervous if you had not met Nullables before. A test for this feature seems to need the world. A real upload. A real Mongo, and not a plain one either, a replica set, because the change stream that carries the count back only fires on a replica set. A real python on the box to run the script. A real socket. That is a lot of world to stand up just to prove that a number goes round a loop.",[11,60,61],{},"We stand up almost none of it. The acceptance test boots the real server, opens a real socket, and drives the real client. But the Mongo underneath is a nulled Mongo, an off switch built into the wrapper, primed to answer with the file and to carry its own writes through as change events. The script runner is a nulled runner, primed to answer as if python had printed a three. No database, no replica set, no python. The test subscribes, calls the method over the wire, and waits for the count to appear in the store, exactly as a browser would.",[11,63,64],{},"It passes. And because the socket, the server, and the client in that test are the real ones, the same code that runs in the test is the code that ships. The only pieces switched off are the two that reach the outside world, and they are switched off in a way the code above them cannot tell. That is the whole trick, and it is why the loop could be built with confidence before a single real byte moved.",[11,66,67],{},"One honest note on the counting itself, since it is the sort of thing that hides a bug. A C count does not care about case, so a c and a C both count, and the script prints a bare number so the method can read it straight. The nulled test rehearses the wiring with a fixed answer. The real script, running for real against a real file, is proven in a separate test that does shell out, so the two never drift: the wiring is honest about the command it sends, and the script is honest about the number it prints.",[18,69,71],{"id":70},"the-move-you-can-reproduce","The move you can reproduce",[11,73,74],{},"You do not have to take our word for the loop. The write back is the whole mechanism, so watch it happen with no database and no python. Build a null app, prime the runner, and define the method the way an app would, then call it:",[76,77,82],"pre",{"className":78,"code":79,"language":80,"meta":81,"style":81},"language-ts shiki shiki-themes github-dark","import { App } from 'ekolite';\n\nconst app = App.createNull({ scriptResponses: { python3: '3' } });\n\napp.methods.define('runCountC', async (id) => {\n  const { stdout } = await app.scriptRunner.exec('python3', ['scripts\u002FcountC.py']);\n  const count = Number(stdout);\n  await app.files.recordCountC(String(id), count); \u002F\u002F the write that makes it reactive\n  return count;\n});\n\nawait app.methods.call('runCountC', ['file-1']); \u002F\u002F 3\n","ts","",[29,83,84,107,114,143,148,185,226,242,266,275,281,286],{"__ignoreMap":81},[85,86,89,93,97,100,104],"span",{"class":87,"line":88},"line",1,[85,90,92],{"class":91},"snl16","import",[85,94,96],{"class":95},"s95oV"," { App } ",[85,98,99],{"class":91},"from",[85,101,103],{"class":102},"sU2Wk"," 'ekolite'",[85,105,106],{"class":95},";\n",[85,108,110],{"class":87,"line":109},2,[85,111,113],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":112},true,"\n",[85,115,117,120,124,127,130,134,137,140],{"class":87,"line":116},3,[85,118,119],{"class":91},"const",[85,121,123],{"class":122},"sDLfK"," app",[85,125,126],{"class":91}," =",[85,128,129],{"class":95}," App.",[85,131,133],{"class":132},"svObZ","createNull",[85,135,136],{"class":95},"({ scriptResponses: { python3: ",[85,138,139],{"class":102},"'3'",[85,141,142],{"class":95}," } });\n",[85,144,146],{"class":87,"line":145},4,[85,147,113],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":112},[85,149,151,154,157,160,163,166,169,172,176,179,182],{"class":87,"line":150},5,[85,152,153],{"class":95},"app.methods.",[85,155,156],{"class":132},"define",[85,158,159],{"class":95},"(",[85,161,162],{"class":102},"'runCountC'",[85,164,165],{"class":95},", ",[85,167,168],{"class":91},"async",[85,170,171],{"class":95}," (",[85,173,175],{"class":174},"s9osk","id",[85,177,178],{"class":95},") ",[85,180,181],{"class":91},"=>",[85,183,184],{"class":95}," {\n",[85,186,188,191,194,197,200,203,206,209,212,214,217,220,223],{"class":87,"line":187},6,[85,189,190],{"class":91},"  const",[85,192,193],{"class":95}," { ",[85,195,196],{"class":122},"stdout",[85,198,199],{"class":95}," } ",[85,201,202],{"class":91},"=",[85,204,205],{"class":91}," await",[85,207,208],{"class":95}," app.scriptRunner.",[85,210,211],{"class":132},"exec",[85,213,159],{"class":95},[85,215,216],{"class":102},"'python3'",[85,218,219],{"class":95},", [",[85,221,222],{"class":102},"'scripts\u002FcountC.py'",[85,224,225],{"class":95},"]);\n",[85,227,229,231,234,236,239],{"class":87,"line":228},7,[85,230,190],{"class":91},[85,232,233],{"class":122}," count",[85,235,126],{"class":91},[85,237,238],{"class":132}," Number",[85,240,241],{"class":95},"(stdout);\n",[85,243,245,248,251,254,256,259,262],{"class":87,"line":244},8,[85,246,247],{"class":91},"  await",[85,249,250],{"class":95}," app.files.",[85,252,253],{"class":132},"recordCountC",[85,255,159],{"class":95},[85,257,258],{"class":132},"String",[85,260,261],{"class":95},"(id), count); ",[85,263,265],{"class":264},"sAwPA","\u002F\u002F the write that makes it reactive\n",[85,267,269,272],{"class":87,"line":268},9,[85,270,271],{"class":91},"  return",[85,273,274],{"class":95}," count;\n",[85,276,278],{"class":87,"line":277},10,[85,279,280],{"class":95},"});\n",[85,282,284],{"class":87,"line":283},11,[85,285,113],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":112},[85,287,289,292,295,298,300,302,304,307,310],{"class":87,"line":288},12,[85,290,291],{"class":91},"await",[85,293,294],{"class":95}," app.methods.",[85,296,297],{"class":132},"call",[85,299,159],{"class":95},[85,301,162],{"class":102},[85,303,219],{"class":95},[85,305,306],{"class":102},"'file-1'",[85,308,309],{"class":95},"]); ",[85,311,312],{"class":264},"\u002F\u002F 3\n",[11,314,315,316,318],{},"The return value is the short way, the one line the caller sees. The ",[29,317,253],{}," write is the long way, and it is the write a subscribed client watches. Nothing shelled out and nothing touched a database, yet both halves of the loop ran: the method read the runner's answer, and it wrote that answer onto the document where a subscription would find it. Swap the null app for a real one, point it at a replica set and a real script, and the same two lines send the count the long way round, down the subscription that was already open, which is the only way anything ever comes back here.",[320,321,322],"style",{},"html pre.shiki code .snl16, html code.shiki .snl16{--shiki-default:#F97583}html pre.shiki code .s95oV, html code.shiki .s95oV{--shiki-default:#E1E4E8}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 pre.shiki code .svObZ, html code.shiki .svObZ{--shiki-default:#B392F0}html pre.shiki code .s9osk, html code.shiki .s9osk{--shiki-default:#FFAB70}html pre.shiki code .sAwPA, html code.shiki .sAwPA{--shiki-default:#6A737D}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);}",{"title":81,"searchDepth":109,"depth":109,"links":324},[325,326,327,328],{"id":20,"depth":109,"text":21},{"id":38,"depth":109,"text":39},{"id":54,"depth":109,"text":55},{"id":70,"depth":109,"text":71},"Design and Architecture","2026-07-20T11:05:00.000Z","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.",false,"md","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-long-way-round-hero.jpg",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-long-way-round","EkoLite",{"title":5,"description":331},null,"blog\u002Fthe-long-way-round",[342,343,344],"design","pubsub","nullables","2MW6Ds2DcGEzs5YyKe4-Nacxg0dcsEmV8LgQzAvqK6w",[347,359,371,378,388,394,403,410,417,426,433,442,449,456,468,476,483,490,499,507,515,525,532,540,547,553,559,568,576,585,593,600,610,618,624,634,643,651,659,667,675,682,690,698,700,706,713,722,730,737,744,753,759,767,773,781,787,796,803,810,818,824,830,836],{"path":348,"title":349,"description":350,"date":351,"author":6,"image":352,"readingMinutes":187,"category":353,"project":354,"tags":355,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[356,357,358],"git","continuous-integration","craft",{"path":360,"title":361,"description":362,"date":363,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":366,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":116},"\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",[367,368,369],"seo","operations","nuxt","From Invisible to Findable",{"path":372,"title":373,"description":374,"date":375,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":376,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":268},"\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",[377,368,369],"privacy",{"path":379,"title":380,"description":381,"date":382,"author":6,"image":383,"readingMinutes":228,"category":384,"project":337,"tags":385,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[344,386,387],"testing","websocket",{"path":389,"title":390,"description":391,"date":392,"author":6,"image":393,"readingMinutes":145,"category":353,"project":339,"tags":339,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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":395,"title":396,"description":397,"date":398,"author":6,"image":399,"readingMinutes":145,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":400,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[368,401,402],"deployment","idempotency",{"path":404,"title":405,"description":406,"date":407,"author":408,"image":409,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":339,"tags":339,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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":411,"title":412,"description":413,"date":414,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":415,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":416},"\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",[367,368,358],0,{"path":418,"title":419,"description":420,"date":421,"author":6,"image":422,"readingMinutes":145,"category":353,"project":354,"tags":423,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[358,424,425],"fastify","security",{"path":427,"title":428,"description":429,"date":430,"author":6,"image":431,"readingMinutes":150,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":432,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[356,357,368],{"path":434,"title":435,"description":436,"date":437,"author":6,"image":438,"readingMinutes":145,"category":353,"project":354,"tags":439,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[358,440,441],"documentation","ai-agents",{"path":443,"title":444,"description":445,"date":446,"author":6,"image":447,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":448,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[357,368,386],{"path":450,"title":451,"description":452,"date":453,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":454,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":109},"\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",[367,368,369,455],"netlify",{"path":457,"title":458,"description":459,"date":460,"author":6,"image":461,"readingMinutes":145,"category":329,"project":462,"tags":463,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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","The EkoHacks CLI",[464,465,466,467],"composition","cli-design","narration","encoding-the-release",{"path":469,"title":470,"description":471,"date":472,"author":6,"image":473,"readingMinutes":228,"category":329,"project":337,"tags":474,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[342,344,475],"error handling",{"path":477,"title":478,"description":479,"date":480,"author":6,"image":481,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":482,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[357,401,368],{"path":484,"title":485,"description":486,"date":487,"author":6,"image":488,"readingMinutes":187,"category":353,"project":354,"tags":489,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[356,357,358],{"path":491,"title":492,"description":493,"date":494,"author":6,"image":495,"readingMinutes":116,"category":329,"project":354,"tags":496,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[342,497,498],"data","onboarding",{"path":500,"title":501,"description":502,"date":503,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":384,"project":462,"tags":504,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[505,344,465,506],"user-testing","linear",{"path":508,"title":509,"description":510,"date":511,"author":6,"image":512,"readingMinutes":150,"category":384,"project":354,"tags":513,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[386,344,514],"mocks",{"path":516,"title":517,"description":518,"date":519,"author":6,"image":520,"readingMinutes":145,"category":364,"project":462,"tags":521,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[522,523,524,467],"automation","releasing","process",{"path":526,"title":527,"description":528,"date":494,"author":6,"image":529,"readingMinutes":116,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":530,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[368,402,531],"webhooks",{"path":533,"title":534,"description":535,"date":536,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":537,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[538,539,464,368],"shell","provisioning",{"path":541,"title":542,"description":543,"date":339,"author":544,"image":545,"readingMinutes":88,"category":329,"project":546,"tags":339,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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":548,"title":549,"description":550,"date":551,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":384,"project":365,"tags":552,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":150},"\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",[367,386,369],{"path":554,"title":555,"description":556,"date":557,"author":6,"image":558,"readingMinutes":109,"category":384,"project":339,"tags":339,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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":560,"title":561,"description":562,"date":563,"author":6,"image":564,"readingMinutes":150,"category":384,"project":462,"tags":565,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[344,566,567,467],"testing-without-mocks","james-shore",{"path":569,"title":570,"description":571,"date":572,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":384,"project":354,"tags":573,"draft":332,"series":575,"seriesOrder":88},"\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",[386,344,514,574],"coverage","What Mocks Cost",{"path":577,"title":578,"description":579,"date":580,"author":6,"image":581,"readingMinutes":150,"category":329,"project":337,"tags":582,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[583,343,386,584],"protocol","tdd",{"path":586,"title":587,"description":588,"date":589,"author":6,"image":590,"readingMinutes":187,"category":384,"project":337,"tags":591,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[344,386,592],"refactoring",{"path":594,"title":595,"description":596,"date":597,"author":6,"image":598,"readingMinutes":150,"category":353,"project":354,"tags":599,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[356,357,358],{"path":601,"title":602,"description":603,"date":604,"author":6,"image":605,"readingMinutes":244,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":606,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[368,607,608,609],"debugging","european-tech","community",{"path":611,"title":612,"description":613,"date":614,"author":6,"image":615,"readingMinutes":187,"category":329,"project":337,"tags":616,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[342,584,617],"continuous integration",{"path":619,"title":620,"description":621,"date":622,"author":6,"image":623,"readingMinutes":145,"category":353,"project":339,"tags":339,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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":625,"title":626,"description":627,"date":628,"author":6,"image":629,"readingMinutes":228,"category":353,"project":354,"tags":630,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[631,632,633,506],"graphql","stories","xp",{"path":635,"title":636,"description":637,"date":638,"author":6,"image":639,"readingMinutes":150,"category":384,"project":462,"tags":640,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[584,641,642,467],"red-first","code-review",{"path":644,"title":645,"description":646,"date":647,"author":6,"image":648,"readingMinutes":150,"category":364,"project":462,"tags":649,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[523,650,356,467],"preflight",{"path":652,"title":653,"description":654,"date":655,"author":6,"image":656,"readingMinutes":150,"category":364,"project":337,"tags":657,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[658,344,386],"shutdown",{"path":660,"title":661,"description":662,"date":663,"author":6,"image":664,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":337,"tags":665,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[666,386,358],"packaging",{"path":668,"title":669,"description":670,"date":671,"author":6,"image":672,"readingMinutes":145,"category":329,"project":462,"tags":673,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[522,674,342,467],"human-in-the-loop",{"path":676,"title":677,"description":678,"date":679,"author":6,"image":680,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":681,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[357,368,358],{"path":683,"title":684,"description":685,"date":686,"author":6,"image":687,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":337,"tags":688,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[658,368,689],"signals",{"path":691,"title":692,"description":693,"date":694,"author":6,"image":695,"readingMinutes":244,"category":353,"project":337,"tags":696,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[642,592,697,386],"teaching",{"path":336,"title":5,"description":331,"date":330,"author":6,"image":334,"readingMinutes":187,"category":329,"project":337,"tags":699,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},[342,343,344],{"path":701,"title":702,"description":703,"date":704,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":705,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":88},"\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",[367,368,369],{"path":707,"title":708,"description":709,"date":710,"author":6,"image":711,"readingMinutes":244,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":712,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[368,607,608,609],{"path":714,"title":715,"description":716,"date":717,"author":6,"image":718,"readingMinutes":145,"category":353,"project":462,"tags":719,"draft":112,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[523,720,721,467],"dogfooding","acceptance-testing",{"path":723,"title":724,"description":725,"date":726,"author":6,"image":727,"readingMinutes":228,"category":384,"project":337,"tags":728,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[386,344,729],"scriptrunner",{"path":731,"title":732,"description":733,"date":734,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":244,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":735,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":187},"\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",[367,368,736],"performance",{"path":738,"title":739,"description":740,"date":741,"author":6,"image":742,"readingMinutes":228,"category":384,"project":337,"tags":743,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[386,344,387],{"path":745,"title":746,"description":747,"date":748,"author":544,"image":749,"readingMinutes":187,"category":353,"project":750,"tags":751,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[358,752,497,697],"content",{"path":754,"title":755,"description":756,"date":580,"author":6,"image":757,"readingMinutes":150,"category":384,"project":337,"tags":758,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[344,386,358,697],{"path":760,"title":761,"description":762,"date":748,"author":544,"image":763,"readingMinutes":145,"category":353,"project":750,"tags":764,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[765,356,697,766],"workflow","accessibility",{"path":768,"title":769,"description":770,"date":771,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":384,"project":354,"tags":772,"draft":332,"series":575,"seriesOrder":109},"\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",[386,344,514,574],{"path":774,"title":775,"description":776,"date":777,"author":6,"image":778,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":779,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[368,402,780],"observability",{"path":782,"title":783,"description":784,"date":785,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":384,"project":354,"tags":786,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[766,386,342,358],{"path":788,"title":789,"description":790,"date":791,"author":6,"image":792,"readingMinutes":116,"category":329,"project":354,"tags":793,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[342,794,795],"validation","typescript",{"path":797,"title":798,"description":799,"date":800,"author":6,"image":801,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":354,"tags":802,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[357,368,401],{"path":804,"title":805,"description":806,"date":807,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":808,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":228},"\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",[377,368,809],"analytics",{"path":811,"title":812,"description":813,"date":814,"author":6,"image":815,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":462,"tags":816,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",[523,817,344,467],"failure-modes",{"path":819,"title":820,"description":821,"date":822,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":823,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":145},"\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",[367,368,369],{"path":825,"title":826,"description":827,"date":828,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":187,"category":384,"project":354,"tags":829,"draft":332,"series":575,"seriesOrder":116},"\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",[386,344,514,574],{"path":831,"title":832,"description":833,"date":834,"author":6,"image":339,"readingMinutes":228,"category":364,"project":365,"tags":835,"draft":332,"series":370,"seriesOrder":244},"\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",[377,368,809],{"path":837,"title":838,"description":839,"date":840,"author":6,"image":841,"readingMinutes":145,"category":329,"project":339,"tags":339,"draft":332,"series":339,"seriesOrder":339},"\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",1787861096909]