Building DevStash: My Personal Developer Platform with Next.js 16

Every developer reaches a point where a LinkedIn profile and a PDF resume just aren't enough. I'm a designer-turned-developer and I wanted something that actually showed my engineering thinking — not just listed it.

So I built DevStash.

What is DevStash?#

DevStash is my personal developer platform at devstash.me. It's not just a portfolio — it's designed to evolve: from a project showcase, to a content platform, to eventually a mini developer ecosystem with tools and resources.

Tech Stack Decisions#

Next.js 16 with App Router#

Next.js 16 gives me SSR, SSG, and ISR all in one framework. The App Router's Server Components mean I can fetch data directly in components without useEffect — dramatically reducing JavaScript sent to the browser.

Tailwind CSS v4#

Tailwind v4 drops the config file for design tokens and moves everything into globals.css using the new @theme block:

@theme {
  --color-ds-accent: #3B82F6;
  --color-ds-bg: #0B0F19;
  --color-ds-surface: #111827;
}

These tokens become Tailwind utility classes automatically: bg-ds-bg, text-ds-accent, etc.

File-Based Content Layer#

Blog posts are MDX files in content/blogs/. Projects are JSON files in content/projects/. No database, no CMS dependency, version-controlled content. If I ever need a headless CMS, I only swap the lib/markdown/ layer — nothing else changes.

One Thing I Learned#

Turbopack crashes on Windows. Remove --turbopack from your dev script immediately. I also learned that Tailwind v4 tokens go in globals.css, not tailwind.config.ts. Spent an hour on that one.

What's Next#

Phase 3 (this post is part of it) sets up the content pipeline. Phase 4 builds the visible pages. Phase 5 completes the full blog system with table of contents, related posts, and syntax highlighted code blocks.

Follow along — I'll be writing about every major decision as I build it.