"forces replacement": the Terraform plan line nobody reads
How a merge request that reads as a version bump can replace a database, and what catches it when the plan summary does not.
Read articleNotes on building useful software.
I’m Stephen Jensen, a senior full-stack engineer and former engineering manager. I write about AI agents, integrations, developer tools, data-intensive systems, and practical products.
Selected writing
All writingUsing Finite State Machines to Simplify Frontend User Flow
A practical way to coordinate complex interface behavior by constraining the states a page is allowed to enter.
Next.js Bring Your Own Database with Prisma
A complete application setup using Next.js, Postgres, Prisma, authentication, and GraphQL.
Dockerizing Next.js with Prisma for Production Environments
A start-to-finish guide to building a production Docker image for Next.js and Prisma.
Selected work
DeployCompare
DeployCompare compares a Terraform deployment with recent successful CI runs and surfaces the stacks that break from their observed pattern.
Read the project notesSource Compare
Source Compare is a collaborative image-versioning tool I built for teams to compare visual assets and preserve a history of changes.
Read the project notesCourse archive
Two project-based courses preserved as a public learning archive.
Frontend Serverless with React and GraphQL
46 written lessons · 46 archived videos
End-to-End React with Prisma 2
33 written lessons · archived video course
Illustrated science archive
PocketScholar
PocketScholar was an interactive science-learning platform I built before Code Mochi. The archive preserves four illustrated science essays, along with videos, interactive quizzes, and notes on how the learning system was designed.
Browse the archive