are often divided right into a separate frontend and backend. The frontend handles what the consumer sees, whereas the backend handles the entire logic and processing. It is a pure separation of issues that almost all platforms merely use as a result of it really works properly.
Nonetheless, while you make modifications to your utility, you usually must make modifications to each the frontend and the backend. That is the place full-stack engineers are available: engineers who work with each the frontend and backend.
Working with each frontend and backend might be difficult, nonetheless, because of a number of causes:
- They’re usually written in several languages: frontend with TypeScript and the backend with Python
- You must cope with permissions and auth, and cope with challenges like CORS errors
- They’re in several repositories and are deployed individually.
With the discharge of coding brokers, working with each frontend and backend code on the similar time has grow to be less complicated. On this article, I’ll offer you a high-level overview of how I work each day with each frontend and backend code, and ensure the 2 programs combine seamlessly.
Why work with each frontend and backend
The rationale you’re employed with each frontend and backend code on the similar time is just due to necessity. Let’s say you need to add a brand new function in your utility, the place a consumer can retailer their AI chatbot conversations and entry them later.
This function merely requires modifications in each the frontend and the backend. It’s good to replace the frontend to show the earlier conversations, and also you want the backend to deal with the storage and retrieval of conversations. Thus, you don’t have an choice to work with each the frontend and backend code.
Moreover, as an engineer, it’s often more practical to work with each frontend and backend. Think about in case you needed to implement the AI chatbot conversations function, and also you have been solely engaged on the frontend. You’ll then need to implement the frontend a part of the course, after which coordinate with one other backend engineer on the way to retailer the conversations. You’d need to spend time discussing:
- The schema for storing conversations
- Which knowledge needs to be included?
- What ought to the endpoint be referred to as
That is tremendous time-consuming. Should you’ve ever labored in a processional software program engineering setting, you know the way a lot time it takes.
As a substitute, in case you do the work solo, you don’t need to do any coordination and may transfer at a a lot larger velocity.
Methods to work successfully with frontend and backend code
On this part, I’ll cowl some methods I take advantage of to work successfully with each frontend and backend code. With the discharge of a super-effective coding agent, this has grow to be a lot less complicated, and also you don’t must have intensive expertise in each frontend and backend code to be efficient.
Use Workspaces
Workspaces are an extremely highly effective function when working in a number of repositories. You are able to do this with Cursor utilizing “Add workspace”, or with any CLI software by merely pointing the agent to the repositories you need to work with. Now the mannequin may have the context of each related repositories and thus be capable of implement a full-stack resolution in a single go.
Workspaces are unbelievable. Earlier than I found it, I used to work with two separate Cursor tabs, one with the frontend code and one with the backend code. I’d then make one change within the frontend, and manually replace the backend to simply accept this new change.
No surprise it took ages for me to place out options. Now, I merely immediate my agent to replace the frontend in accordance with some directions, and it routinely updates the backend with the corresponding code to simply accept the frontend modifications. In fact, this works the opposite means as properly.
Monorepos
Monorepos are additionally tremendous highly effective. The other of a monorepo is to have all your code unfold into totally different repositories (often known as microservices). In my expertise, this doesn’t work very properly, because it merely makes it tougher for you and your coding brokers to maintain observe of the place all the things is.
As a substitute, I extremely advocate shifting all the things to a monorepo, the place you have got all of your code in a single codebase. Now you may simply create guidelines, reminiscent of pre-commit hooks, that apply to all your code and should not have to duplicate them throughout a number of repositories. Moreover, you may simply have AGENTS.md recordsdata overlaying and explaining the entire repository, so brokers simply preserve observe of the place all the things is.
If all of your code is in a monorepo, you’d additionally not want workspaces, as I described within the final part. Nonetheless, it’s fairly frequent to have a monorepo for the frontend/API code, after which a separate repository dealing with extra advanced processing, reminiscent of operating brokers or doing doc processing. Thus, you’ll usually have to make use of workspaces anyway.
AGENTS.md as context
One other crucial tip is to actively use and replace AGENTS.md. There are lots of alternate options to AGENTS.MD, reminiscent of CLAUDE.md, WARP.md, or .cursorrules. In my expertise, nonetheless, AGENTS.MD is learn by all coding brokers, irrespective of which one you utilize.
Thus I like to recommend utilizing AGENTS.md as a result of in case you ever change an agent sooner or later, or your coworkers are utilizing totally different brokers, you may all profit equally.
You’ll be able to have an AGENTS.md file within the root of your repository that gives a high-level overview of the repository, form of like a README. This could clarify to the agent which folders include which logic, making it simpler for the agent to navigate the code.
Moreover, you may have AGENT.md in all subfolders as properly. For instance, when you’ve got a service in a single folder, you may have an AGENTS.md file there explaining how the service works, or any quirks to pay attention to.
I additionally need to add that everytime you make modifications to your code, you’ll want to replace AGENTS.md. You’ll be able to, for instance, immediate your coding agent to replace the related AGENTS.md recordsdata for you, given what it realized in its final session, and it’ll routinely add necessary notes. Remember to push these modifications to GitHub as properly, in fact, so your colleagues can profit from the data you’ve gained.
Conclusion
On this article, I’ve mentioned the way to successfully work with each frontend and backend code. I began off by explaining why it’s necessary to know the way to work with each frontend and backend, highlighting that it’s often a more practical means of getting stuff accomplished. Moreover, I elaborated on some methods I take advantage of to work successfully with frontend and backend, overlaying using Workspaces, monorepos, and AGENTS.md. I consider that sooner or later, we’ll all be full-stack engineers, contemplating how efficient coding brokers are. The work of a human engineer will merely be to coordinate all of your brokers in the best means potential, with a purpose to resolve a very powerful issues, in one of the best and most effective method.
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