Vol. 7 · Issue 02 February 2026 Birmingham, AL

Fred Lackey

Code & Life — A Developer's Journal

Engineering Terminal with code

Building a Multi-Tenant SaaS Platform with Node.js and Postgres

After eighteen months of trial and error, a complete teardown, and one existential crisis about database schemas, I finally shipped a multi-tenant architecture that doesn't make me lose sleep. Here's every decision, mistake, and hard-won lesson from the journey.

Fred Lackey February 12, 2026 18 min read

Latest Articles

Showing 6 of 48
Travel

A Week in Lisbon Without a Laptop

What happens when a compulsive coder leaves the MacBook at home and wanders through cobblestone streets with nothing but a notebook.

January 18, 2026 · 7 min read

TypeScript

Branded Types Changed How I Think About Validation

Forget runtime checks everywhere. Once I discovered branded types in TypeScript, my entire approach to domain modeling shifted overnight.

January 14, 2026 · 12 min read

Cooking

The Perfect Saturday Morning Pancake (A Developer's Approach)

I optimized my pancake recipe the way I optimize code: measure everything, test relentlessly, and document the winning configuration.

January 10, 2026 · 5 min read

Architecture

When Microservices Are Overkill: A Case for the Modular Monolith

Everyone wants to split things apart. Sometimes the smartest architecture decision is keeping it all together, carefully.

January 6, 2026 · 15 min read

Family

Building a Treehouse with No Power Tools

My kids wanted a treehouse. I wanted to prove I could do something with my hands that didn't involve a keyboard. Three weekends later...

January 2, 2026 · 6 min read

Databases

Row-Level Security in Postgres: The Complete Guide

If you're building multi-tenant apps without RLS, you're one bad WHERE clause away from a data breach. Here's how to do it right.

December 28, 2025 · 20 min read

Personal Essay

The Year I Stopped Chasing Frameworks and Started Finishing Projects

Somewhere around my fourth rewrite of the same side project -- this time in Svelte, after React, Vue, and a brief Elm phase -- I realized the framework was never the problem. I was.

"The best technology choice is the one that lets you ship. Everything else is procrastination wearing a technical hat."
Person working at desk

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