StackPulse — Developer Tools Discovery & Product Launch Platform
Production-ready developer tools directory with search, reviews, bookmarks, user dashboards, and admin moderation powered by a secure custom JWT authentication system.
Overview
StackPulse is a production-ready developer tools directory where users can discover, launch, review, and bookmark developer tools, libraries, and frameworks.
The platform includes searchable and filterable product discovery, category and pricing filters, reviews, bookmarks, user profiles, personal dashboards, and an administrative moderation system. Product submissions follow a PENDING, PUBLISHED, and REJECTED workflow, while admins can manage categories and moderate user accounts.
The backend is built with Node.js, Express 5, TypeScript, Prisma ORM, and PostgreSQL. Authentication is fully self-contained using bcrypt for password hashing and stateless JWT authentication. Tokens are stored exclusively in secure httpOnly cookies and are never exposed to client-side JavaScript or localStorage.
The system uses role-based access control for admin functionality, Zod for request validation, centralized error handling, and Prisma transactions for multi-step writes. Denormalized counters for ratings, reviews, bookmarks, and category product counts are maintained transactionally to keep related data consistent.
The frontend is built with Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, TanStack React Query, React Hook Form, and Zod. API requests use a same-origin Next.js proxy, keeping the backend API URL hidden from the browser while allowing secure httpOnly authentication cookies to work reliably.
Key Results
Challenges & Solutions
Built a self-contained authentication system using bcrypt password hashing and stateless JWTs stored exclusively in secure httpOnly cookies, avoiding localStorage-based token storage.
Implemented role-based access control with protected user and admin routes, including product moderation, category management, and user account administration.
Designed a transactional PostgreSQL data layer with Prisma, maintaining denormalized rating, review, bookmark, and category counters consistently across multi-step operations.
Implemented slug history so renamed products continue resolving from previous URLs without breaking shared links or existing product references.
Built a same-origin API proxy in Next.js so the browser communicates through /api/* while the backend remains behind the server-side rewrite layer.
Future Improvements
- Add automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests across the client and backend.
- Add product upvoting, trending rankings, and personalized recommendations based on user activity.
- Add real-time notifications for reviews, product approvals, bookmarks, and other account activity.
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