Engine: Prologue

About this Series

This series explores the moving parts of a new "engine" for application development. While the focus is primarily on backend software using JavaScript, it also ties into frontend technologies and polyglot development.

What Are We Building?

An "Engine". But what does this engine do?

We’re building a flexible, modular, and scalable engine designed to be a foundation for a wide range of purpose-built solutions. It provides enough structure to free developers to focus on unique challenges, while limiting unnecessary work and remaining flexible.

What Makes This Engine Different?

This engine is not just another framework — it’s a meta-framework designed to offer a lightweight, extensible foundation on which other frameworks or applications can be built. Here are some of the key principles driving its development:

• Lightweight and Accessible: Simple to adopt and productive from the start, while capable of supporting enterprise-grade solutions.
• Pluggable Architecture: As modular as possible, so that we can leverage existing tech and tailor the engine for specific use cases.
• Security Minded: Plugins execute in secure, isolated environments to ensure stability and safety when possible.
• Polyglot Compatibility: Support for plugins to be written in multiple languages, supporting the integration of best-of-breed tools.
• Testing and Dev Tools: Make testing easy and robust, and do whatever we can to lower friction and boost developer productivity.
• Unified Logging and Observability: Core logging and observability tooling to ensure every aspect of the system is traceable and debuggable.
• Configuration: Robust and integrated handling of configuration and environment variables.
• Service Container: Managing shared implementations and dependencies between components.
• Human Interface Core: Plugins can request user interaction (e.g., CLI prompts, web UI inputs), which the engine routes through pluggable adapters.
• Examples and Documentation: Excellent documentation and examples which demonstrate the functionality of system in different contexts.

Why JavaScript?

While JavaScript's vast ecosystem can sometimes feel fragmented, its ubiquity and flexibility remain unmatched. It enables application development across all layers of the stack—server, browser, desktop, and mobile—and has robust support for native integrations through bridges and WebAssembly. These strengths, combined with its vibrant community, make JavaScript a pragmatic choice for building adaptable, scalable systems.

Next Steps

In the next chapter, we’ll explore the prototype’s architecture, breaking down its components, configuration, and exploring practical examples. I invite you to join this journey, collaborate, and help shape a system that meets real-world needs.