Full-Stack Development
- ·Database, API and interface handled by one engineer, so nothing is lost in a handoff.
- ·React and Next.js on the front, Node.js and PostgreSQL behind it.
- ·Receipts: the Kredit Hero credit app, 1,000+ users in its first 30 days.
| Built with | React · Next.js · Node.js · Express · PostgreSQL · REST APIs |
| Delivered by | · backend-director · |
| Skills used | data-model · ship-it |
Receipts
What this involves
Full-stack here means one engineer owns the schema, the server logic and the interface, so there is no handoff between a backend team and a frontend one for a requirement to fall through. The trade-off is real and worth stating: one engineer is a bandwidth ceiling, and past a certain size a team beats a generalist. Below that size the handoff costs more than the extra hands are worth.
The strongest receipt is Kredit Hero: AI Credit App, an AI credit application built with React, Node.js and PostgreSQL that reached 1,000+ users in its first 30 days, with sprint milestones delivered 15% ahead of schedule.
Two current builds run on Cloudflare Workers with D1 as the only datastore. One Nadela Ops is an operations platform a working business runs on, covering purchase orders, stock takes, an approvals chain and a security tier, and it carries green at every deploy, private repository green tests behind versioned migrations, applied in order versioned schema migrations. Klik is a swipe-to-match hiring app, live and invite gated while its waitlist fills.
Tool choice follows the project rather than habit. Next.js and React on the front, Node.js with PostgreSQL or Cloudflare D1 behind it, and the whole list of what has been used on what is at /projects rather than presented as a wall of logos.
Kredit Hero, an AI credit application built full stack with React, Node.js and PostgreSQL, reached 1,000+ users in its first 30 days.
How the work runs
1. Discovery
We agree what the project has to achieve, what it must not break, and how we will both know it worked, before any code is written.
2. Build
The work is built with an AI agent as the working partner and a human reviewing every change before it lands. You get commits you can read rather than a status update.
3. Review
You review running software at each milestone, not a screenshot of it, and the next milestone absorbs what you send back.
4. Launch
We deploy to production with checks in the pipeline and alerting that reaches a human, and you hold the repository and the infrastructure accounts.
Questions people actually ask
What tech stack does James Lorenz Santos build on?
Next.js and React with TypeScript on the front end, Node.js with PostgreSQL or Cloudflare D1 behind it, and Payload CMS or Supabase where a content or auth layer is needed. Every entry on that list at /projects names the project it was actually used on, which is the difference between a stack and a skills section.
Who owns the code when the project ends?
The client does, and it is worth getting this in writing rather than taking it as read from any contractor. Ownership of the repository, the infrastructure accounts and the deployment pipeline should be named in the scope document before work starts, along with what documentation ships at handover.
Can you work inside an existing codebase?
Yes, and it is a different job from a greenfield build rather than an easier one. Joining an existing codebase means the first work is reading and characterization rather than shipping, and a quote that skips that phase is a quote that will be revised later.
What does one engineer owning the whole stack actually change?
It removes the translation step where a requirement is handed between specialists and loses something each time. It also removes the redundancy that a team gives you, so the honest framing is a trade of coordination cost against bandwidth, and it favours the small-to-medium project rather than every project.