Resources for working developers

How to Write a README That People Actually Read

A great README gets people running your project in minutes. A simple structure, a five minute test and a template you can copy for your next repository.

How to Write Git Commit Messages Your Future Self Will Thank You For

Good commit messages make history searchable and reviews easier. A short, practical guide to the subject line, the body, and a few conventions worth adopting.

Environment Variables and Secrets: A Safe Setup Guide

Learn how environment variables work, how to use a .env file safely, what to do if a secret leaks, and why some variables are never truly secret in a web app.

How to Read a Stack Trace Without Panicking

A stack trace lists the chain of function calls that led to an error. Learn where to look first, how to ignore the noise, and how to find your own code quickly.

Caching Explained for Web Developers

Caching makes sites faster and cheaper, but it can also show people stale data. Learn the layers of a cache, how Cache-Control works, and how to avoid the classic mistakes.

Build a mock API from an OpenAPI spec in 10 minutes

Go from a YAML file to a running mock server, with realistic data and failure modes.

A Practical Guide to API Versioning

URL, header or date-based? A clear comparison of the common versioning styles, what counts as a breaking change, and a calm way to deprecate old versions.

Authentication reference

API keys, OAuth 2.0 and short-lived tokens across every DeveloperJar API.

Retry with exponential backoff

A small, dependency-free retry helper with jitter for flaky network calls.

async function retry(fn, { retries = 4, base = 300 } = {}) {
  for (let i = 0; ; i++) {
    try { return await fn(); }
    catch (err) {
      if (i >= retries) throw err;
      const wait = base * 2 ** i + Math.random() * 100;
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, wait));
    }
  }
}

Why We Stopped Writing Changelogs by Hand

How generating release notes from pull requests saved hours and made them better, plus the small habits that make an automated changelog worth reading.

Ship preview environments for every pull request

Wire Git, containers and DNS together so reviewers can click instead of clone.

Chunk any iterable in Python

Process large lists in fixed-size batches without loading everything into memory.

from itertools import islice

def chunked(items, size):
    it = iter(items)
    while batch := list(islice(it, size)):
        yield batch

Designing Error Responses Developers Can Act On

Status codes, error shapes and messages that shorten debugging instead of prolonging it. A guide to writing API errors that people can actually fix.

What “API-First” Actually Costs (and Saves)

API-first means agreeing on the interface before building it. An honest look at the upfront effort, the time it saves later, and when it is not worth it.

Delete merged Git branches

One line to tidy your local repo after a busy sprint.

# keep main and the current branch
git branch --merged | grep -v "\*\|main" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

SDK quickstart: Node, Python and Go

Install, authenticate and make your first call in under five minutes.

Notes on Building Offline-First Developer Tools

Local-first sync, conflict handling and why your CLI should work on a plane. Practical notes on designing developer tools that do not depend on a connection.