TL;DR; Rolling out Writer

After a few intense days of coding, debugging, and iterating, Writer is live. Here's the story of building it.

The spark

The idea was simple: a minimalist, API-first blog platform that a developer could fully control. No bloat, no unnecessary UI, just a clean REST API and a lightweight web interface. The goal was to create something that could be self-hosted with minimal dependencies and deployed with a single command.

The stack

Writer is built with a deliberately simple stack:

• Node.js + Express – The backbone, handling HTTP requests and routing
• EJS templates – Server-side rendering with minimal fuss
• JsLiteDB – A file-based JSON database that requires zero configuration
• Bare Deploy – A deployment tool that pushes code to a Raspberry Pi with a single command

There's no React, no TypeScript, no complex build pipeline. Just plain JavaScript and a few well-chosen libraries.

The journey

First commit to working prototype

The first commit landed on April 16. Within hours, the basic structure was in place: an Express server, EJS templates, and the initial API routes. The priority was getting the core CRUD operations working – creating, reading, updating, and deleting posts.

The API-first approach

Every feature was designed with the API in mind. The web interface is just a consumer of the same endpoints that any client could use. This forced clean separation of concerns and made the system inherently extensible.

Security and polish

A complete security review addressed CSRF protection, rate limiting, and XSS prevention. The confirmation flows for destructive actions (like deleting posts or rotating tokens) added an extra layer of safety.

Deployment challenges

Getting the deployment pipeline right took multiple iterations. The bare.config.json went through several revisions to handle environment variables, dependency installation, and process management with PM2.

What's next?

Writer is just beginning. The API-first architecture makes it easy to extend with new features, clients, and integrations. The codebase is open source and ready for contributions.

This article was authored with the assistance of an AI that used the Writer API to update the post content – a practical demonstration of the API-first philosophy.