all-paths-talk/README.md

TaylorDB + tRPC Full-Stack Monorepo

A production-ready pnpm monorepo combining React frontend and Express backend with tRPC for type-safe API communication. Built for AI-assisted development platforms.

📦 Monorepo Structure

taylordb-clientserver-template/
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml          # Workspace configuration
├── package.json                  # @repo/frontend (root)
├── server/
│   ├── package.json             # @repo/server
│   ├── index.ts                 # Express + tRPC server
│   ├── router.ts                # tRPC procedures
│   ├── trpc.ts                  # tRPC configuration
│   └── taylordb/
│       ├── types.ts             # Auto-generated TaylorDB types
│       └── query-builder.ts     # TaylorDB CRUD operations
├── src/                         # React frontend
└── ...

🚀 Quick Start

# Install all workspace dependencies
pnpm install

# Run both frontend and backend
pnpm dev:full

# Or run separately
pnpm dev           # Frontend only (port 5173)
pnpm dev:server    # Backend only (port 3001)

Visit:

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• Backend: http://localhost:3001
• Demo Page: http://localhost:5173/trpc-demo

📚 Workspaces

@repo/frontend (Root)

The React + Vite frontend application

Location: / (root directory)

Tech Stack:

• React 19 with TypeScript
• Vite 7 for bundling
• TailwindCSS 4 for styling
• shadcn/ui components
• React Router v6
• tRPC React Query client

Scripts:

pnpm dev              # Start dev server
pnpm build            # Build for production
pnpm lint             # Run ESLint

@repo/server

The Express + tRPC backend API

Location: /server

Tech Stack:

• Express 5 web server
• tRPC 11 for type-safe APIs
• TaylorDB query builder
• Zod for validation
• TypeScript 5

Scripts:

pnpm --filter @repo/server dev      # Start with hot reload
pnpm --filter @repo/server build    # Build TypeScript
pnpm --filter @repo/server start    # Run production build

🛠️ Available Scripts

Root Commands (run from anywhere)

# Development
pnpm dev:full        # Run both workspaces concurrently
pnpm dev             # Frontend only
pnpm dev:server      # Backend only

# Building
pnpm build           # Build frontend
pnpm build:server    # Build backend
pnpm build:all       # Build both

# Other
pnpm lint            # Lint all code
pnpm generate:schema # Generate TaylorDB types

Workspace-Specific Commands

# Run command in specific workspace
pnpm --filter @repo/frontend <command>
pnpm --filter @repo/server <command>

# Examples
pnpm --filter @repo/server dev
pnpm --filter @repo/frontend build

🔧 Configuration Files

pnpm-workspace.yaml

Defines workspace packages:

packages:
  - "server"
  - "."

Package Names

• Frontend: @repo/frontend
• Backend: @repo/server

All packages are marked as private: true (not published to npm)

📡 API Communication

tRPC Router Export

The backend exports its router type from server/router.ts:

export type AppRouter = typeof appRouter;

Frontend tRPC Client

The frontend imports the type for end-to-end type safety:

import type { AppRouter } from "../../server/router";
export const trpc = createTRPCReact<AppRouter>();

Note: This works because both packages are in the same monorepo, allowing direct TypeScript imports without shared packages.

🗄️ TaylorDB Integration

Setup

1. Copy .env.example to .env
2. Add your TaylorDB credentials:

   TAYLORDB_BASE_URL=your_base_url
   TAYLORDB_BASE_ID=your_base_id
   TAYLORDB_API_KEY=your_api_key
   

3. Generate types: pnpm generate:schema

CRUD Operations

50+ type-safe procedures available:

• Weight Tracking: Full CRUD + statistics
• Goals Management: Create, read, update, delete
• Strength Workouts: Exercise logging
• Cardio Exercises: Duration, distance, speed tracking
• Calories/Nutrition: Daily totals and aggregations
• Settings: Key-value configuration

See TAYLORDB_INTEGRATION.md for detailed examples.

🏗️ Monorepo Benefits

For This Project

✅ Shared Types: Frontend and backend share TypeScript types directly
✅ Single Repository: One git repo, one pnpm-lock.yaml
✅ Coordinated Builds: Build both projects together
✅ Simplified Setup: One pnpm install for everything
✅ Workspace Commands: Target specific packages easily

Compared to Separate Repos

• ⚡ Faster development (no publishing to npm for type updates)
• 🔒 Type safety guaranteed at development time
• 📝 Simpler dependency management
• 🔄 Atomic commits across frontend and backend

📦 Dependency Management

Installing Dependencies

For frontend:

# From root
pnpm add <package>

# Or explicitly
pnpm --filter @repo/frontend add <package>

For backend:

pnpm --filter @repo/server add <package>

For both:

pnpm add <package> -w  # Add to root workspace

Workspace Dependencies

Workspaces can depend on each other using workspace:*:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@repo/shared": "workspace:*"
  }
}

🚢 Deployment

Option 1: Deploy Separately

• Frontend → Vercel/Netlify (static site from dist/)
• Backend → Railway/Render/Fly.io (Node.js app)

Build commands:

pnpm build           # Frontend
pnpm build:server    # Backend

Option 2: Deploy Together

Serve frontend from backend:

pnpm build:all       # Build both
# Configure Express to serve frontend static files

Environment Variables

Set these in your deployment platform:

• TAYLORDB_BASE_URL
• TAYLORDB_BASE_ID
• TAYLORDB_API_KEY
• FRONTEND_URL (for CORS)
• VITE_TRPC_URL (frontend)

🎯 Next Steps

1. Add Shared Package (optional):

   mkdir packages/shared
   # Create package.json for shared utilities/types
   

2. Add Tests:

   pnpm --filter @repo/server add -D vitest
   pnpm --filter @repo/frontend add -D vitest
   

3. CI/CD:

   • Use pnpm install --frozen-lockfile in CI
   • Run pnpm build:all for deployment
   • Cache node_modules and .pnpm-store

📚 Learn More

• pnpm Workspaces
• tRPC Documentation
• TaylorDB
• Monorepo Handbook

📄 License

MIT - Use freely for any project!

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