what it does
Stackmaven is a live reference for developer and AI tooling. Catalog pages explain what a tool does and who it’s for, with alternatives and an opinionated verdict. News articles link back to those pages so an update has context beyond the announcement.
The catalog and news are the shipped product. The stack recommender is still a coming-soon page, not a working feature.
why i built it
Keeping up with tools is easy to turn into a full-time distraction. I wanted a place where I could look up a tool, understand the trade-offs, and see what had changed without assembling that picture from scattered release notes.
The publication has its own editorial voice. It’s separate from my course work, even though explaining developer tools is something I’ve spent a long time doing.
how it’s built
- Astro, Tailwind, and MDX: static pages deployed on Vercel.
- Content in Git: catalog entries and articles use validated frontmatter.
- Pagefind: search over the published site without a search database.
- Structured data: catalog and article pages include metadata for search engines.
- Automated content workflows: source updates feed ongoing catalog and news work.
There is AI-assisted drafting and automated publishing in the workflow. I can’t honestly describe every entry as personally reviewed before it goes live. The useful standard is whether its claims are supported and whether corrections make it back into the catalog.
current direction
Keeping the catalog accurate is the ongoing work. A recommender may be useful later, but it isn’t a promised release or something visitors can use today. There is no reason to describe a future paid tier as though it already exists.