Tech Stack Advisor

This user has a well-established preferred technology stack for full-stack applications. Always recommend this stack unless there's a specific reason not to.

Authoritative Source

GitHub Template: https://github.com/guthdx/fastapi-react-postgres-template

This is the canonical, production-ready template. Clone from here when starting new projects.

Preferred Stack Summary

When to Use This Skill

• User is starting a new full-stack project
• User asks "what stack should I use?"
• User is choosing between frameworks
• User wants to scaffold a new application
• User mentions building an API with a frontend
• User discusses architecture decisions

Instructions

1. Check memory first for the "Preferred Tech Stack" entity
2. Recommend the FastAPI + React + PostgreSQL stack
3. Reference the GitHub template as the source to clone
4. Offer to scaffold by cloning the template
5. Remind about key patterns:
   • Python 3.13 via /opt/local/bin/python3.13 (not system Python 3.10)
   • Async SQLAlchemy with asyncpg driver
   • Pydantic Settings for configuration
   • Three-tier Docker architecture with health checks

Quick Start Command

git clone https://github.com/guthdx/fastapi-react-postgres-template.git PROJECT_NAME
cd PROJECT_NAME
cp .env.production.example .env
# Edit .env
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml up -d --build

Key Architecture Decisions

1. Async by default: FastAPI + async SQLAlchemy
2. Environment-based config: Pydantic BaseSettings
3. Health checks everywhere: db, backend, frontend all have health endpoints
4. Docker-first: Production uses docker-compose.production.yml
5. Nginx for frontend: Multi-stage build, serves static React build
6. Traefik for local dev: Route via *.localhost domains instead of port numbers

Traefik Development Proxy (Required for New Projects)

All new projects MUST include Traefik labels for local development routing.

Start Traefik First (Once)

cd ~/terminal_projects/claude_code/traefik && docker compose up -d

Add to docker-compose.yml

services:
  backend:
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.PROJECTNAME-api.rule=Host(`PROJECTNAME-api.localhost`)"
      - "traefik.http.services.PROJECTNAME-api.loadbalancer.server.port=8000"
    networks:
      - traefik-dev
      - default

  frontend:
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.PROJECTNAME.rule=Host(`PROJECTNAME.localhost`)"
      - "traefik.http.services.PROJECTNAME.loadbalancer.server.port=5173"
    networks:
      - traefik-dev
      - default

  db:
    # NO Traefik labels - database stays internal
    networks:
      - default

networks:
  traefik-dev:
    external: true

Access Pattern

• Frontend: http://PROJECTNAME.localhost
• Backend API: http://PROJECTNAME-api.localhost
• Dashboard: http://traefik.localhost or http://localhost:8080

Port Management

PORT_REGISTRY.md

Always check ~/terminal_projects/claude_code/PORT_REGISTRY.md before allocating ports.

Reserved Port Ranges

Environment Variable Pattern

ports:
  - "${POSTGRES_PORT:-5433}:5432"   # Use env var with unique default
  - "${BACKEND_PORT:-8002}:8000"
  - "${FRONTEND_PORT:-5174}:5173"

Health Check Patterns

FastAPI Backend (Python)

healthcheck:
  test: ["CMD", "python", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/api/v1/health')"]
  interval: 30s
  timeout: 10s
  retries: 3
  start_period: 10s

PostgreSQL Database

healthcheck:
  test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}"]
  interval: 5s
  timeout: 5s
  retries: 5

Vite Frontend (Skip for Dev)

Vite dev server doesn't work well with health checks. Disable in development:

# healthcheck: disabled for Vite dev server

For production with Nginx:

healthcheck:
  test: ["CMD", "wget", "-q", "--spider", "http://localhost/health"]
  interval: 30s
  timeout: 10s
  retries: 3

CORS Configuration for Traefik

Update CORS origins to include .localhost domains:

environment:
  - BACKEND_CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost:5173,http://PROJECTNAME.localhost,http://PROJECTNAME-api.localhost

Local Working Examples

• ~/terminal_projects/claude_code/cyoa-honky-tonk - Original stack demo
• ~/terminal_projects/claude_code/csep_barter_bank - Traefik-enabled example