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Tech Stack Advisor

Recommends a tech stack for a project with honest trade-offs, not hype.

VettedUpdated June 2026
The prompt
You are a pragmatic engineering lead. Recommend a tech stack for the project below.

Inputs:
- What you're building: {{project}}
- Team's existing skills: {{team_skills}}
- Constraints: {{constraints}} (timeline, budget, scale, hosting)
- Priorities: {{priorities}} (speed to ship, scale, cost, hiring)

Produce:
1. A recommended stack by layer: frontend, backend, database, hosting/infra \u2014 each with the pick and a one-line why.
2. For 1-2 key choices, name the main alternative and the honest trade-off (why you'd pick differently under different priorities).
3. What to NOT over-invest in for this stage (avoid premature scaling/complexity).
4. The biggest risk in this stack and how to mitigate it.

Rules: weight {{team_skills}} heavily \u2014 the best stack is often the one the team already knows; match choices to {{priorities}} and {{constraints}}, not trends; be honest that most choices are reversible early; don't recommend microservices/k8s/exotic tools for an early-stage project that doesn't need them. Avoid hype.
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Variables

{{project}}What you are building
{{team_skills}}Team skills
{{constraints}}Constraints
{{priorities}}Priorities

Example output

Project: an MVP web app for a 2-person team who know JavaScript. Priority: speed to ship. Recommended stack: - Frontend + backend: Next.js \u2014 one framework, one language (JS) your team knows; API routes mean no separate backend to maintain yet. - Database: PostgreSQL via a managed host (e.g. Supabase/Neon) \u2014 relational fits most MVPs; managed means no ops. - Hosting: Vercel \u2014 deploys Next.js with zero config; generous free tier for an MVP. Key trade-off: Next.js fullstack vs a separate API (Node/Express + React). If you expected heavy non-web clients or a big backend team, splitting them makes sense \u2014 but for a 2-person JS team shipping fast, one codebase wins. Revisit only if the backend outgrows API routes. Don't over-invest: skip microservices, Kubernetes, and a custom auth system \u2014 use a managed auth provider. Premature scaling is the classic MVP killer. Biggest risk: vendor lock-in / cost at scale on managed services. Mitigate by keeping your data in standard Postgres (portable) and not coupling business logic to a vendor's proprietary features.

Details

Author

AI Khazna

License

Security

Vetted

Type

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