[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":929},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran":3,"blog-all":433},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":416,"date":417,"description":418,"draft":419,"extension":420,"image":421,"meta":422,"navigation":277,"path":423,"project":424,"readingMinutes":359,"seo":425,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426,"stem":427,"tags":428,"__hash__":432},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran.md","The Script That Never Ran","EkoHacks Team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":408},"minimark",[10,27,30,35,38,139,142,146,153,156,166,170,173,188,197,200,204,207,214,221,225,228,244,248,251,397,404],[11,12,13,14,18,19,22,23,26],"p",{},"EkoLite, our small real time backend, can do two things that have never been introduced to each other. A method can run: a named function on the server, reachable over the socket, that mints a reply for whoever called. A script can run: ",[15,16,17],"code",{},"ScriptRunnerWrapper"," takes a command and some arguments, runs a process, and hands back what it printed, its ",[15,20,21],{},"stdout",", its ",[15,24,25],{},"stderr",", its exit code. Both are tested to the hilt on nullables. And until now, no method has ever run a script. A registry that can dispatch and a runner that can shell out, and not a single line where one reaches the other. A wrapper with no caller is a promise nobody has cashed.",[11,28,29],{},"This post is that first introduction, and it is smaller than you might expect, on purpose.",[31,32,34],"h2",{"id":33},"the-smallest-possible-join","The smallest possible join",[11,36,37],{},"An app built on EkoLite defines the method itself, because the framework wires infrastructure and stops there. It comes back with empty registries, and whatever you define is all that is on it. So the join is a method the app registers, one that resolves a script, asks the runner to run it, and returns what the script printed:",[39,40,45],"pre",{"className":41,"code":42,"language":43,"meta":44,"style":44},"language-ts shiki shiki-themes github-dark","app.methods.define('runCountC', async () => {\n  const result = await app.scriptRunner.exec('python3', [app.asset('countC.py')]);\n  return result.stdout;\n});\n","ts","",[15,46,47,83,124,133],{"__ignoreMap":44},[48,49,52,56,60,63,67,70,74,77,80],"span",{"class":50,"line":51},"line",1,[48,53,55],{"class":54},"s95oV","app.methods.",[48,57,59],{"class":58},"svObZ","define",[48,61,62],{"class":54},"(",[48,64,66],{"class":65},"sU2Wk","'runCountC'",[48,68,69],{"class":54},", ",[48,71,73],{"class":72},"snl16","async",[48,75,76],{"class":54}," () ",[48,78,79],{"class":72},"=>",[48,81,82],{"class":54}," {\n",[48,84,86,89,93,96,99,102,105,107,110,113,116,118,121],{"class":50,"line":85},2,[48,87,88],{"class":72},"  const",[48,90,92],{"class":91},"sDLfK"," result",[48,94,95],{"class":72}," =",[48,97,98],{"class":72}," await",[48,100,101],{"class":54}," app.scriptRunner.",[48,103,104],{"class":58},"exec",[48,106,62],{"class":54},[48,108,109],{"class":65},"'python3'",[48,111,112],{"class":54},", [app.",[48,114,115],{"class":58},"asset",[48,117,62],{"class":54},[48,119,120],{"class":65},"'countC.py'",[48,122,123],{"class":54},")]);\n",[48,125,127,130],{"class":50,"line":126},3,[48,128,129],{"class":72},"  return",[48,131,132],{"class":54}," result.stdout;\n",[48,134,136],{"class":50,"line":135},4,[48,137,138],{"class":54},"});\n",[11,140,141],{},"That is the whole method. It is meant to be almost nothing, because the interesting part is not what it computes. It is that it joins two things that used to live apart. A real analysis can grow on this seam later, but the seam is the point today, so we keep the method too small to hide anything.",[31,143,145],{"id":144},"the-question-that-shapes-the-test","The question that shapes the test",[11,147,148,149,152],{},"Here is the awkward thing about proving this. A method that runs a script is exactly the kind of code that is tempting to test by running the script. Spin up ",[15,150,151],{},"python3",", point it at a real file, read what comes back. And then your test needs Python on the machine, and a file on disk, and it is slow, and it is really testing three things at once while pretending to test one.",[11,154,155],{},"So we ask the question we always end up asking here. How do you prove a join without doing the real thing on either side of it?",[11,157,158,159,161,162,165],{},"The answer is the off switch we already trust everywhere else. ",[15,160,17],{}," has a null version, and its whole job is to behave like the real runner without ever touching a process. So we prime it with the answer a script would have printed, wire it into the app, and call the method the way the wire would. ",[15,163,164],{},"App.createNull"," takes those primed answers, keyed by command, and hands the same assembled app back with its runner switched off.",[31,167,169],{"id":168},"one-real-decision-made-honestly","One real decision, made honestly",[11,171,172],{},"There was a genuine fork in the road, and it is worth pulling out because the test cannot be written until it is settled.",[11,174,175,176,178,179,181,182,184,185,187],{},"When the method calls ",[15,177,104],{},", what does it pass? It could hand ",[15,180,104],{}," the script path as the command, as if the script were an executable you could run on its own. Or it could hand ",[15,183,104],{}," a runtime, ",[15,186,151],{},", with the path as an argument. Those are two different shapes, and the null has to be keyed to whichever one you pick, because the null answers on the command it was given.",[11,189,190,191,193,194,196],{},"We went with ",[15,192,151],{}," and the path as an argument. Partly because it is honest for a Python file that has no execute bit and no shebang you can rely on, which is how these scripts will actually arrive. Partly because it makes the null key on something the test can predict, ",[15,195,151],{},", rather than on a path that only exists once it has been resolved. The rule is simple and it kept us straight: whatever the real run will do, the null has to be keyed the same way, or the test is rehearsing a different play than the one that ships.",[11,198,199],{},"There is a second test worth keeping next to the first, and it exists only to stop a shortcut. It hands the method a deliberately different path and watches, through the runner's own tracking, that the runner was asked to run that path and not some favourite baked into the method. Without it, the method could ignore its argument entirely, run a hardcoded file, and the first test would smile and pass. The second test makes the method prove it runs the path it was given.",[31,201,203],{"id":202},"the-path-is-configuration-not-a-secret","The path is configuration, not a secret",[11,205,206],{},"That second test is really about one habit, so let us name it. The script path does not live as a literal inside the method. It arrives.",[11,208,209,210,213],{},"EkoLite reads its configuration once, at boot, and injects it. The database URI, the upload directory, the port, all of them are read in one place and handed to the pieces that need them. The script path joins that list through the app's assets directory, so ",[15,211,212],{},"app.asset('countC.py')"," resolves against configuration rather than a literal buried in the method. A different script, a different location, a different deployment, and nothing inside the method changes.",[11,215,216,217,220],{},"One small detail underneath that resolution is worth thirty seconds, because it is the kind of thing that works on your laptop and breaks in a container. When you turn a repository path like ",[15,218,219],{},"scripts\u002FcountC.py"," into a full path, you have to anchor it on something. The lazy anchor is the current working directory, the folder the process happened to be started from. That is a property of how someone launched the server, not of where the code lives, and it quietly changes when the server boots from a service manager, a container, or a test runner that sets its own. So the app anchors on a configured assets directory instead, which is fixed no matter who started the process. The asset resolves to the same place whether you run it from the repository root or from anywhere else.",[31,222,224],{"id":223},"what-this-story-is-honest-about-not-doing","What this story is honest about not doing",[11,226,227],{},"The teaching moment is not finished, and pretending otherwise would be the dishonest move.",[11,229,230,231,234,235,237,238,240,241,243],{},"EkoLite does not ship ",[15,232,233],{},"countC.py",", and it never will, because the framework carries no analysis of its own. The script is the app's to bring. The wiring is proven against a runner that never shells out, which is exactly the right shape for this slice and exactly the wrong shape to call it done. The real script, an integration test that runs it for real and reads its actual output, and the socket path a browser would call the method through, are all held for the next slices. Register the method today against a real runner and an app whose script is not there yet, and a live call resolves the path, runs ",[15,236,151],{}," against a file that is not there, and comes back with an empty string. Not an error, an empty string, because the method hands back what the script printed to ",[15,239,21],{},", and the complaint about the missing file went to ",[15,242,25],{},", which this method does not read yet. That is the smell of a call that resolves successfully and quietly returns nothing. It is the honest state. The join exists and is tested, the thing it joins to is the app's to supply, and the day it does the same seam carries its output back untouched.",[31,245,247],{"id":246},"the-move-you-can-reproduce","The move you can reproduce",[11,249,250],{},"You do not have to take our word for the shape of it. In a Node session or a test, build a null app, prime the runner with the answer a script would have printed, define the join, and call it:",[39,252,254],{"className":41,"code":253,"language":43,"meta":44,"style":44},"import { App } from 'ekolite';\n\nconst app = App.createNull({ scriptResponses: { python3: 'count: 42' } });\n\napp.methods.define('runCountC', async () => {\n  const result = await app.scriptRunner.exec('python3', ['scripts\u002FcountC.py']);\n  return result.stdout;\n});\n\nawait app.methods.call('runCountC', []); \u002F\u002F 'count: 42'\n",[15,255,256,273,279,304,308,329,357,364,369,374],{"__ignoreMap":44},[48,257,258,261,264,267,270],{"class":50,"line":51},[48,259,260],{"class":72},"import",[48,262,263],{"class":54}," { App } ",[48,265,266],{"class":72},"from",[48,268,269],{"class":65}," 'ekolite'",[48,271,272],{"class":54},";\n",[48,274,275],{"class":50,"line":85},[48,276,278],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":277},true,"\n",[48,280,281,284,287,289,292,295,298,301],{"class":50,"line":126},[48,282,283],{"class":72},"const",[48,285,286],{"class":91}," app",[48,288,95],{"class":72},[48,290,291],{"class":54}," App.",[48,293,294],{"class":58},"createNull",[48,296,297],{"class":54},"({ scriptResponses: { python3: ",[48,299,300],{"class":65},"'count: 42'",[48,302,303],{"class":54}," } });\n",[48,305,306],{"class":50,"line":135},[48,307,278],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":277},[48,309,311,313,315,317,319,321,323,325,327],{"class":50,"line":310},5,[48,312,55],{"class":54},[48,314,59],{"class":58},[48,316,62],{"class":54},[48,318,66],{"class":65},[48,320,69],{"class":54},[48,322,73],{"class":72},[48,324,76],{"class":54},[48,326,79],{"class":72},[48,328,82],{"class":54},[48,330,332,334,336,338,340,342,344,346,348,351,354],{"class":50,"line":331},6,[48,333,88],{"class":72},[48,335,92],{"class":91},[48,337,95],{"class":72},[48,339,98],{"class":72},[48,341,101],{"class":54},[48,343,104],{"class":58},[48,345,62],{"class":54},[48,347,109],{"class":65},[48,349,350],{"class":54},", [",[48,352,353],{"class":65},"'scripts\u002FcountC.py'",[48,355,356],{"class":54},"]);\n",[48,358,360,362],{"class":50,"line":359},7,[48,361,129],{"class":72},[48,363,132],{"class":54},[48,365,367],{"class":50,"line":366},8,[48,368,138],{"class":54},[48,370,372],{"class":50,"line":371},9,[48,373,278],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":277},[48,375,377,380,383,386,388,390,393],{"class":50,"line":376},10,[48,378,379],{"class":72},"await",[48,381,382],{"class":54}," app.methods.",[48,384,385],{"class":58},"call",[48,387,62],{"class":54},[48,389,66],{"class":65},[48,391,392],{"class":54},", []); ",[48,394,396],{"class":395},"sAwPA","\u002F\u002F 'count: 42'\n",[11,398,399,400,403],{},"Then do the thing that makes it click. Change the answer you prime the runner with, from ",[15,401,402],{},"count: 42"," to anything you like, and watch the method hand your new string straight back. Nothing ran. No Python, no file, no process. What you are watching is a defined method carry a script's output back to its caller, proven before the script it will one day run has been written at all. That gap between proven and finished is not a gap we are hiding. It is where the next slice goes.",[405,406,407],"style",{},"html pre.shiki code .s95oV, html code.shiki .s95oV{--shiki-default:#E1E4E8}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 pre.shiki code .snl16, html code.shiki .snl16{--shiki-default:#F97583}html pre.shiki code .sDLfK, html code.shiki .sDLfK{--shiki-default:#79B8FF}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html pre.shiki code .sAwPA, html code.shiki .sAwPA{--shiki-default:#6A737D}",{"title":44,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":409},[410,411,412,413,414,415],{"id":33,"depth":85,"text":34},{"id":144,"depth":85,"text":145},{"id":168,"depth":85,"text":169},{"id":202,"depth":85,"text":203},{"id":223,"depth":85,"text":224},{"id":246,"depth":85,"text":247},"Testing and TDD","2026-07-20T11:00:00.000Z","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.",false,"md","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran-hero.jpg",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran","EkoLite",{"title":5,"description":418},null,"blog\u002Fthe-script-that-never-ran",[429,430,431],"testing","nullables","scriptrunner","JN3QdPEYfJxOirk24XCdgBa-mqjidfzyV2E4y7ybI9c",[434,446,458,465,473,479,488,495,502,511,518,527,534,541,554,563,570,577,586,594,602,612,619,627,634,640,646,655,663,673,681,688,698,706,712,722,731,739,747,755,763,770,778,786,793,799,806,815,817,824,831,840,846,854,860,868,874,883,890,897,905,911,917,923],{"path":435,"title":436,"description":437,"date":438,"author":6,"image":439,"readingMinutes":331,"category":440,"project":441,"tags":442,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[443,444,445],"git","continuous-integration","craft",{"path":447,"title":448,"description":449,"date":450,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":453,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":126},"\u002Fblog\u002Fa-map-drawn-by-the-build","A Map Drawn by the Build","Thirty six of our pages had never been visited by Google because nothing said they existed. The sitemap is drawn from the build, and it found a draft.","2026-08-22T20:30:00.000Z","Shipping and Operations","ekohacks.com",[454,455,456],"seo","operations","nuxt","From Invisible to Findable",{"path":459,"title":460,"description":461,"date":462,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":463,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":371},"\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",[464,455,456],"privacy",{"path":466,"title":467,"description":468,"date":469,"author":6,"image":470,"readingMinutes":359,"category":416,"project":424,"tags":471,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[430,429,472],"websocket",{"path":474,"title":475,"description":476,"date":477,"author":6,"image":478,"readingMinutes":135,"category":440,"project":426,"tags":426,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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":480,"title":481,"description":482,"date":483,"author":6,"image":484,"readingMinutes":135,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":485,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[455,486,487],"deployment","idempotency",{"path":489,"title":490,"description":491,"date":492,"author":493,"image":494,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":426,"tags":426,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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":496,"title":497,"description":498,"date":499,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":500,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":501},"\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",[454,455,445],0,{"path":503,"title":504,"description":505,"date":506,"author":6,"image":507,"readingMinutes":135,"category":440,"project":441,"tags":508,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[445,509,510],"fastify","security",{"path":512,"title":513,"description":514,"date":515,"author":6,"image":516,"readingMinutes":310,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":517,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[443,444,455],{"path":519,"title":520,"description":521,"date":522,"author":6,"image":523,"readingMinutes":135,"category":440,"project":441,"tags":524,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[445,525,526],"documentation","ai-agents",{"path":528,"title":529,"description":530,"date":531,"author":6,"image":532,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":533,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[444,455,429],{"path":535,"title":536,"description":537,"date":538,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":539,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":85},"\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",[454,455,456,540],"netlify",{"path":542,"title":543,"description":544,"date":545,"author":6,"image":546,"readingMinutes":135,"category":547,"project":548,"tags":549,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[550,551,552,553],"composition","cli-design","narration","encoding-the-release",{"path":555,"title":556,"description":557,"date":558,"author":6,"image":559,"readingMinutes":359,"category":547,"project":424,"tags":560,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[561,430,562],"design","error handling",{"path":564,"title":565,"description":566,"date":567,"author":6,"image":568,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":569,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[444,486,455],{"path":571,"title":572,"description":573,"date":574,"author":6,"image":575,"readingMinutes":331,"category":440,"project":441,"tags":576,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[443,444,445],{"path":578,"title":579,"description":580,"date":581,"author":6,"image":582,"readingMinutes":126,"category":547,"project":441,"tags":583,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[561,584,585],"data","onboarding",{"path":587,"title":588,"description":589,"date":590,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":416,"project":548,"tags":591,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[592,430,551,593],"user-testing","linear",{"path":595,"title":596,"description":597,"date":598,"author":6,"image":599,"readingMinutes":310,"category":416,"project":441,"tags":600,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[429,430,601],"mocks",{"path":603,"title":604,"description":605,"date":606,"author":6,"image":607,"readingMinutes":135,"category":451,"project":548,"tags":608,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[609,610,611,553],"automation","releasing","process",{"path":613,"title":614,"description":615,"date":581,"author":6,"image":616,"readingMinutes":126,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":617,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[455,487,618],"webhooks",{"path":620,"title":621,"description":622,"date":623,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":624,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[625,626,550,455],"shell","provisioning",{"path":628,"title":629,"description":630,"date":426,"author":631,"image":632,"readingMinutes":51,"category":547,"project":633,"tags":426,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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":635,"title":636,"description":637,"date":638,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":416,"project":452,"tags":639,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":310},"\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",[454,429,456],{"path":641,"title":642,"description":643,"date":644,"author":6,"image":645,"readingMinutes":85,"category":416,"project":426,"tags":426,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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":647,"title":648,"description":649,"date":650,"author":6,"image":651,"readingMinutes":310,"category":416,"project":548,"tags":652,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[430,653,654,553],"testing-without-mocks","james-shore",{"path":656,"title":657,"description":658,"date":659,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":416,"project":441,"tags":660,"draft":419,"series":662,"seriesOrder":51},"\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",[429,430,601,661],"coverage","What Mocks Cost",{"path":664,"title":665,"description":666,"date":667,"author":6,"image":668,"readingMinutes":310,"category":547,"project":424,"tags":669,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[670,671,429,672],"protocol","pubsub","tdd",{"path":674,"title":675,"description":676,"date":677,"author":6,"image":678,"readingMinutes":331,"category":416,"project":424,"tags":679,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[430,429,680],"refactoring",{"path":682,"title":683,"description":684,"date":685,"author":6,"image":686,"readingMinutes":310,"category":440,"project":441,"tags":687,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[443,444,445],{"path":689,"title":690,"description":691,"date":692,"author":6,"image":693,"readingMinutes":366,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":694,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[455,695,696,697],"debugging","european-tech","community",{"path":699,"title":700,"description":701,"date":702,"author":6,"image":703,"readingMinutes":331,"category":547,"project":424,"tags":704,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[561,672,705],"continuous integration",{"path":707,"title":708,"description":709,"date":710,"author":6,"image":711,"readingMinutes":135,"category":440,"project":426,"tags":426,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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":713,"title":714,"description":715,"date":716,"author":6,"image":717,"readingMinutes":359,"category":440,"project":441,"tags":718,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[719,720,721,593],"graphql","stories","xp",{"path":723,"title":724,"description":725,"date":726,"author":6,"image":727,"readingMinutes":310,"category":416,"project":548,"tags":728,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[672,729,730,553],"red-first","code-review",{"path":732,"title":733,"description":734,"date":735,"author":6,"image":736,"readingMinutes":310,"category":451,"project":548,"tags":737,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[610,738,443,553],"preflight",{"path":740,"title":741,"description":742,"date":743,"author":6,"image":744,"readingMinutes":310,"category":451,"project":424,"tags":745,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[746,430,429],"shutdown",{"path":748,"title":749,"description":750,"date":751,"author":6,"image":752,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":424,"tags":753,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[754,429,445],"packaging",{"path":756,"title":757,"description":758,"date":759,"author":6,"image":760,"readingMinutes":135,"category":547,"project":548,"tags":761,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[609,762,561,553],"human-in-the-loop",{"path":764,"title":765,"description":766,"date":767,"author":6,"image":768,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":769,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[444,455,445],{"path":771,"title":772,"description":773,"date":774,"author":6,"image":775,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":424,"tags":776,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[746,455,777],"signals",{"path":779,"title":780,"description":781,"date":782,"author":6,"image":783,"readingMinutes":366,"category":440,"project":424,"tags":784,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[730,680,785,429],"teaching",{"path":787,"title":788,"description":789,"date":790,"author":6,"image":791,"readingMinutes":331,"category":547,"project":424,"tags":792,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[561,671,430],{"path":794,"title":795,"description":796,"date":797,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":798,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":51},"\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",[454,455,456],{"path":800,"title":801,"description":802,"date":803,"author":6,"image":804,"readingMinutes":366,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":805,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[455,695,696,697],{"path":807,"title":808,"description":809,"date":810,"author":6,"image":811,"readingMinutes":135,"category":440,"project":548,"tags":812,"draft":277,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[610,813,814,553],"dogfooding","acceptance-testing",{"path":423,"title":5,"description":418,"date":417,"author":6,"image":421,"readingMinutes":359,"category":416,"project":424,"tags":816,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},[429,430,431],{"path":818,"title":819,"description":820,"date":821,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":366,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":822,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":331},"\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",[454,455,823],"performance",{"path":825,"title":826,"description":827,"date":828,"author":6,"image":829,"readingMinutes":359,"category":416,"project":424,"tags":830,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[429,430,472],{"path":832,"title":833,"description":834,"date":835,"author":631,"image":836,"readingMinutes":331,"category":440,"project":837,"tags":838,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[445,839,584,785],"content",{"path":841,"title":842,"description":843,"date":667,"author":6,"image":844,"readingMinutes":310,"category":416,"project":424,"tags":845,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[430,429,445,785],{"path":847,"title":848,"description":849,"date":835,"author":631,"image":850,"readingMinutes":135,"category":440,"project":837,"tags":851,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[852,443,785,853],"workflow","accessibility",{"path":855,"title":856,"description":857,"date":858,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":416,"project":441,"tags":859,"draft":419,"series":662,"seriesOrder":85},"\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",[429,430,601,661],{"path":861,"title":862,"description":863,"date":864,"author":6,"image":865,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":866,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[455,487,867],"observability",{"path":869,"title":870,"description":871,"date":872,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":416,"project":441,"tags":873,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[853,429,561,445],{"path":875,"title":876,"description":877,"date":878,"author":6,"image":879,"readingMinutes":126,"category":547,"project":441,"tags":880,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[561,881,882],"validation","typescript",{"path":884,"title":885,"description":886,"date":887,"author":6,"image":888,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":441,"tags":889,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[444,455,486],{"path":891,"title":892,"description":893,"date":894,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":895,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":359},"\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",[464,455,896],"analytics",{"path":898,"title":899,"description":900,"date":901,"author":6,"image":902,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":548,"tags":903,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",[610,904,430,553],"failure-modes",{"path":906,"title":907,"description":908,"date":909,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":910,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":135},"\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",[454,455,456],{"path":912,"title":913,"description":914,"date":915,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":331,"category":416,"project":441,"tags":916,"draft":419,"series":662,"seriesOrder":126},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-the-nullable-gave-back","What the Nullable Gave Back","One file, seven behaviours held fixed, the database swapped for a Nullable: about 180 times less time inside the tests, and coverage flat to two decimals.","2026-08-29T09:00:00.000Z",[429,430,601,661],{"path":918,"title":919,"description":920,"date":921,"author":6,"image":426,"readingMinutes":359,"category":451,"project":452,"tags":922,"draft":419,"series":457,"seriesOrder":366},"\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",[464,455,896],{"path":924,"title":925,"description":926,"date":927,"author":6,"image":928,"readingMinutes":135,"category":547,"project":426,"tags":426,"draft":419,"series":426,"seriesOrder":426},"\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",1787861096917]