backend-dev-guidelines

Enforce layered architecture in Express by separating routes, controllers, services, and repositories. This approach mandates BaseController inheritance and Zod validation to ensure consistent structure, error handling, and reduced maintenance costs across Node.js codebases.

Use Zod validation in a Node.js backend to enforce robust data checking at the controller layer. It satisfies mandatory backend patterns by preventing invalid payloads from reaching your services, reducing bugs and ensuring consistent error handling.

Integrate Sentry error tracking with a BaseController pattern by routing all exceptions through a centralized handler. This forbids missing error handling anti-patterns and ensures all backend failures are automatically captured for robust tracking.

Stop direct process.env usage by implementing a unifiedConfig pattern. This approach forbids scattered environment variable access across your Node.js application, replacing it with a centralized configuration to reduce bugs and maintenance costs.

Audit your backend codebase by checking routes for business logic, direct process.env usage, and missing error handling. Refactor these against mandated patterns like layered architecture, BaseController, and Zod validation to improve maintainability.

These backend guidelines apply specifically to Node.js/TypeScript projects using Express. They enforce strict patterns like Zod validation and BaseController, ensuring robust architecture and reducing maintenance costs in typed environments.