Latest
InfrastructureHow much one small server carries
A load test of signed-in users doing what the app does all day, the first capacity numbers, and why production numbers from India say more about distance than about the server.
Building in the open
What broke, what it cost, and what changed.
Notes from building PaceStreak, a habit and streak tracker. Written as it happens rather than tidied up afterwards.
EngineeringA sign-out must not lose a session
Signing out used to wipe this device's data, including writes that hadn't reached the server yet. Now they're parked under your account and put back when you sign in again.
2 min
EngineeringMerging two accounts by asking Postgres what points at them
Moving everything one account owns into another, without a hand-kept list of tables that is out of date the day a table is added.
2 min
Security & PrivacyFive reactions and a coach's overview
Kudos can now be one of five preset reactions, with nothing typed and nothing to moderate. And coaches get one screen for everyone who shares their training with them, consent checked exactly as before.
1 min
DesignThree moments to ask for an install, and only three
PaceStreak held back the browser's install prompt and then hardly ever offered its own. Now it asks on the first visit, on a later day and after the first session, once each, and Settings still works any time.
2 min
ProductHabits on chosen days, and pausing just one
A habit can now be planned for specific weekdays, and paused on its own while everything else carries on. Both had to mean the same thing to the streak, the reminders and the badge.
2 min
ProductLoad the bar, don't do the arithmetic
The plate calculator now works in both directions: tap plates onto the bar and read the total, or type a total and see what goes on each side. The bar is remembered per exercise.
2 min
Security & PrivacyEmailing you your own data, carefully
The monthly backup email can now carry the export itself. It was held back for a privacy reason, then built behind a second opt-in with a plain warning. Here's the trade-off and how it's guarded.
1 min
Security & PrivacyAll of PaceStreak is open source
The app, the API, both sites and the infrastructure notes are now public on GitHub under AGPL-3.0. What that took, and what was checked first.
2 min
DesignKeyboard first, and thumb first
A command palette, G-then-a-letter shortcuts, swipe and long-press on habits, pull to refresh, and why each one is a shortcut on top of a button rather than the only way in.
2 min
InfrastructureA 308 that sent every link home
Reloading any page in the app, or opening a shared link, landed on Today. The SPA rewrite rules pointed at /index.html, and Cloudflare Pages redirects that to /. It had been true for every deployment.
1 min
Security & PrivacyNotification buttons without a session
A habit reminder now has Done and Snooze buttons. The service worker that handles them has no access token, by design, so each button carries a signed, single-purpose link instead.
2 min
ProductAn undo that is a restore
Every delete in PaceStreak now offers Undo, backed by a 30-day trash on the server. Why the trash stores generic snapshots, keeps original ids, and refuses a restore that would clash.
2 min