Beginner · 10 steps
Understand your stack
A conceptual-but-grounded tour of the layers that make up a modern 2026 web stack, from the UI you see down to where your code runs. By the end you'll be able to name every piece of a Next.js + database + serverless setup and explain how they connect — so when your agent scaffolds a project, you actually know what you're looking at.
- 1Guide
Choose your stack in 2026
Start here to see the whole map — what a 2026 stack is made of and why the default pieces are the defaults.
- 2Term
Component
The smallest unit of your UI; everything you see on screen is built from these, so learn it first.
- 3Term
SSR
How your pages actually get built and where — the rendering choice that defines a Next.js-style stack.
- 4Term
API
The contract between your frontend and everything behind it; this is how the layers talk.
- 5Term
Database
Where your app's data lives — the concept before you touch a real one.
- 6Recipe
Set up a database
Make it concrete: stand up a real database so the rest of the stack has something to talk to.
- 7Term
ORM
The layer that lets your code query the database in plain functions instead of raw SQL — right after you have a DB to point it at.
- 8Term
Type safety
The thread that ties a TypeScript stack together and catches mismatches between these layers before they ship.
- 9Term
Serverless
Where your backend code actually runs in 2026 — the runtime model behind most modern hosting.
- 10Recipe
Deploy your app
Ship the whole stack live and watch every layer you just learned work together in production.