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How this site is made.

This site is a small, deliberately ordinary system — the kind I would recommend to a client with the same problem.

How a page gets to you

Edge
- Nginx
  TLS, routing, static media
Experience
- Next.js
  Server-rendered, cached pages
- CMS
  Same app, /admin
Services
- NestJS API
  Validation, auth, search
Data
- PostgreSQL
  Content + full-text search
- Media storage
  Disk or S3-compatible

NginxNext.js
Next.jsNestJS API
NestJS APIPostgreSQL

Pages are rendered by Next.js from content served by a NestJS API over PostgreSQL. Editing in the CMS invalidates the page cache.

Stack

Next.js (App Router) and React, TypeScript throughout
NestJS API with Zod validation and OpenAPI docs
PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM; full-text search built in
Docker Compose and Nginx

Type & colour

Schibsted Grotesk, Newsreader and IBM Plex Mono
IBM Plex Sans Arabic and Noto Naskh Arabic
Paper and ink by day, graphite by night, one signal colour

No trackers, no cookies for visitors, no third-party scripts unless I choose an analytics provider in the CMS. If you are curious about the details, there is a longer write-up in the notes.