/uses

What I reach for daily.

The tools, libraries, and patterns I actually use to ship production software. Not aspirational — what's in the terminal history.

Last updated: June 2026 · Inspired by uses.tech

Daily Driver

Hardware
HP EliteBook 840 G8 Notebook PC + 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1145G7 @ 2.60GHz (2.61 GHz)/16 GB RAM
Display
4K UHD IPS Display + 1920x1080 external monitor
Keyboard
Mechanical / laptop keyboard hybrid — the built-in keyboard for portability, and a Keychron K2 for long coding sessions at my desk.
OS
Windows 11 Pro

Editor
VS Code
Plus the obvious extensions: ESLint, Prettier, GitLens, Error Lens, Pretty TypeScript Errors
AI assist
Claude Code / GitHub Copilot / Codex
For boilerplate, refactors, and rubber-ducking
Theme
Dracula Official
Terminal
Windows Terminal
Shell
pwsh (PowerShell Core)

Framework
Next.js 16 (App Router)
Server Components by default, client components only when needed. Turbopack for dev.
Language
TypeScript
Strict mode. No implicit any. No untyped boundaries.
Styling
Tailwind CSS 4
With CSS variables for theming. Occasional inline styles for one-offs.
State (when needed)
Zustand · React Context · URL state
Most pages need less state than people reach for. URL state and Server Components do a lot of the work.
Forms
react-hook-form + Zod
Type-safe end to end. Same Zod schema runs client and server.
Animation
CSS transitions · IntersectionObserver · Motion (when justified)

Runtime
Node.js (Express 5 for dedicated services)
Express for stateful real-time services like chat servers. Next.js route handlers for everything else.
Validation
Zod
On every API boundary. No untrusted data reaches business logic.
API docs
Swagger / OpenAPI
Generated from the same schemas. Clients always have a contract.
Real-time
Socket.io
With JWT-over-socket auth and smart fan-out (dedup window per room).
Auth
Auth.js v5 (NextAuth) · JWT for Express services
Background jobs
Cron via Vercel / route handlers · BullMQ for heavier queues

Framework
React Native + Expo (managed workflow)
EAS Build for production. No ejecting unless absolutely needed.
Navigation
Expo Router (file-based)
Native APIs
expo-notifications · expo-location · expo-file-system

Primary database
MongoDB / Mongoose
Default choice for document-shaped data (bookings, multi-tenant tenants, chat messages).
Relational
PostgreSQL
When the data is genuinely tabular and joins are central.
Cache / pub-sub
Redis
Sessions, rate limits, transient state. Upstash for serverless deploys.
Real-time DB
Firestore · Supabase
For projects where the client wants a managed real-time backend.
File storage
DigitalOcean Spaces · AWS S3

Stripe
Subscriptions, webhooks, Connect
Always verify webhook signatures. Always idempotency-key your event handlers (stripeEventId).
Local payments (BD)
bKash · Nagad · Cash on delivery
For Bangladesh-market projects.
Email
Nodemailer (SMTP) · Resend (managed)
Maps
Mapbox GL
Geospatial queries via MongoDB 2dsphere indexes.

Hosting
Vercel · DigitalOcean App Platform
Vercel for Next.js. DO for Express services that need persistent processes (Socket.io).
CI/CD
GitHub Actions
Monitoring
Vercel Analytics · Sentry
DNS / CDN
Cloudflare

Commits
Conventional commits
feat:, fix:, refactor:, chore:. Makes changelogs free.
Branching
trunk-based with short-lived feature branches
Reviews
PRs even for solo work — leaves an audit trail
Testing philosophy
Integration > unit for backend; visual + e2e for frontend
I write tests where the cost of a bug is high — payment flows, auth, data migrations.

I'm taking on new freelance and contract projects.