All posts.
Every EasySpawn article, newest first — deploying AI-built apps, Claude Code, databases, security, and the infrastructure underneath.
217 posts · page 1 of 9
Zero-Downtime Deploys for a Small App
You don't need Kubernetes to deploy without dropping requests. What actually causes downtime during a deploy — stopping before starting, no health checks, killed requests, and database changes the old code can't handle — and the four practices that fix each one.
What Is XSS? Cross-Site Scripting Explained for Beginners
Cross-site scripting lets an attacker run their JavaScript in your users' browsers — stealing sessions, changing pages, acting as the user. How XSS works, the three types, why React mostly protects you, the escape hatches that don't, and the defences that matter.
Getting AI to Write Tests That Actually Catch Bugs
Ask an AI for tests and you'll get plenty: tests that mock everything, assert nothing useful, and pass no matter what the code does. How to get tests that fail when behaviour breaks — what to test, how to prompt, how to check a test is real, and how tests become the agent's safety net.
How to Write Good Commit Messages (and Why It Matters With AI)
'fix', 'update', and 'wip' tell you nothing six months later. What a commit message is for, the simple format most teams use, examples of good and bad messages, how often to commit when an AI tool is making the changes, and how to get Claude Code to write useful ones.
How to Write a README for Your Project
The README is the front page of your project — for collaborators, clients, future you, and AI tools that read it for context. What to include, a template you can copy, how it differs from a CLAUDE.md, and the mistakes that make READMEs useless.
How to Write a Good Bug Report (for Humans and AI Tools)
'It's broken' can't be fixed. 'On /checkout, clicking Pay with an empty cart returns a 500' can. The five parts of a useful bug report, how to find reproduction steps, what evidence to attach, and a template you can paste into GitHub issues or your AI coding tool.
Why Is My Website Slow? A Beginner's Guide to Finding Out
Slow sites lose visitors. How to measure speed properly, what Core Web Vitals mean, and the usual culprits in AI-built apps — huge images, too much JavaScript, slow database queries, waterfalls of API calls, and a server far from your users — with a fix for each.
Why Does My App Work Locally but Not in Production?
The app runs perfectly on your machine and breaks the moment it's deployed. It's almost always one of about a dozen causes — missing environment variables, localhost URLs, a filesystem that doesn't persist. How to find which one, in the order most likely to be it.
Where Should User Uploads Go? Object Storage Explained
Profile photos that vanish after a deploy, a database bloated with images, a public bucket full of private documents. Where uploaded files should live, how object storage works, and the three decisions — public or private, who uploads, and how files are served — that keep uploads fast and safe.
What Is Web Hosting? A Plain-English Guide for First-Time App Builders
Your app has to run on a computer that's always on and connected to the internet. That's hosting. The main kinds — static hosting, app hosting, servers you manage, and managed platforms — what each is for, and how to tell which one your app needs.
What Is Vibe Coding? What It's Great For, and Where It Breaks
Vibe coding means building software by describing what you want to an AI and accepting what it produces, often without reading the code. It's genuinely powerful for some things and genuinely risky for others. An honest guide to where the line is.
What Is "the Cloud"? Cloud Computing for Beginners
The cloud is other people's computers, rented by the minute. What cloud computing actually is, the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, what AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure sell, how cloud billing works, and how much of it a first app really needs.
What Is Serverless? (There Are Still Servers)
Serverless means you write functions and the platform runs them on demand — no servers to manage, pay per use. What serverless really is, how it differs from an always-on server, cold starts, timeouts, and the database connection problem, and when it's the wrong fit.
What Is React? A Beginner's Guide to the Library Behind Most AI-Built Apps
Lovable, Bolt, v0, and Claude Code all tend to produce React. What React is, what components, props, and state mean, how to read a .jsx file, what hooks like useState and useEffect do, and the React mistakes AI tools make most often.
What Is Rate Limiting? Protecting Your App From Too Many Requests
Rate limiting caps how many requests someone can make in a period. Why every public app needs it — for login forms, sign-ups, AI features, and APIs — how it works, what a 429 response means, where to add limits, and what to do when you hit someone else's.
What Is Node.js? JavaScript Outside the Browser, Explained
Node.js lets JavaScript run on servers and on your computer, and it's behind npm, most AI-built backends, and tools like Claude Code's ecosystem. What Node.js is, what it's used for, LTS versions, how to install it properly, and the errors beginners hit first.
What Is Next.js? A Beginner's Guide
Next.js is the React framework that v0 and many AI tools produce by default. What it adds on top of React, how file-based routing works, server vs client components, API routes, what 'rendering' means, and what you need to know to deploy it.
What Is MCP? The Model Context Protocol for Beginners
MCP is a standard way to plug tools and data into AI apps — a USB-C port for AI. What the Model Context Protocol is, what servers and clients are, what tools, resources, and prompts do, real examples, and the safety questions to ask before connecting one.
What Is Markdown? The Formatting Language You're Already Using
Markdown is plain text with a few symbols for formatting — # for headings, ** for bold, - for lists. It's used in READMEs, GitHub, docs, notes apps, CLAUDE.md files, and AI chat. The full basic syntax on one page, plus tables, code blocks, and the gotchas.
What Is Localhost? (And Why Your Friend Can't Open Your Link)
You send someone http://localhost:3000 and it doesn't work for them. That's because localhost means 'this computer' — yours, and only yours. What localhost and ports are, how to share an app you're working on, and why localhost sneaks into apps that are supposed to be live.
What Is JSON? A Five-Minute Guide
JSON is the text format apps use to send data to each other — every API response, many config files, and a lot of what your AI tool writes. How to read it, the six kinds of values it can hold, the mistakes that make it invalid, and where you'll meet it.
What Is HTTPS? The Padlock, Explained for Beginners
HTTPS is why the browser shows a padlock instead of 'Not secure'. What it protects, what it doesn't, what a certificate is, why your app needs it before launch, and how to fix the common 'mixed content' and certificate errors.
What Is Docker? A Beginner's Explanation
Docker packages an app with everything it needs to run, so it works the same on any computer. What containers and images are, how they differ from virtual machines, why hosts and AI tools use them everywhere, and whether you need to learn Docker at all.
What Is CRUD? The Four Operations Behind Almost Every App
Create, Read, Update, Delete: most app features are some combination of these four. What CRUD means, how it maps to SQL and HTTP methods, what a CRUD API looks like, and the details — validation, permissions, pagination — that separate a demo from a real app.