Let me be honest: my development setup is not aesthetic.
I don't have a standing desk with three curved monitors and a mechanical keyboard that sounds like rainfall. My workspace is a laptop, and approximately 47 browser tabs I keep telling myself I'll close "later."
But you know what? My toolkit works. And after three years of building MERN stack projects, I've figured out which tools actually matter.
Not the trendy ones. The ones that save my sanity when production is on fire.
VS Code: The Editor That Doesn't Fight Me
VS Code is my home base. Not because it's perfect (it's definitely crashed during important demos), but because I've finally got it set up exactly how I need it.
Prettier - Because arguing about semicolons is a waste of everyone's time. Hit save, everything formats. Done.
ESLint - My personal code critic that catches stupid mistakes before they become production problems.
GitLens - Answers the eternal question: "Who wrote this code and what were they thinking?" (Plot twist: it's usually me from three months ago.)
Thunder Client - For when I need to test an API endpoint but don't want to leave VS Code.
Tailwind CSS IntelliSense - Because remembering whether it's justify-center or center-justify shouldn't require a Google search every single time.
React code snippets - Type rafce, get a functional component. It's the small things that add up.
Import Cost - Shows you when you're about to import a 2MB library for one function. Eye-opening.
Chrome DevTools: Where Bugs Go to Get Caught
Chrome DevTools + React Developer Tools are basically my second home.
I live in the Network tab when APIs are being weird. The React component tree is a lifesaver when props aren't flowing right. And the Console? That's where I have philosophical conversations with console.log() about why my variable is undefined.
Real talk: if you're not comfortable with DevTools, you're making life harder. I've watched developers waste hours on bugs that would've taken 5 minutes to spot with the Network tab open.
HTTPie: API Testing Without the Drama
HTTPie is my ride-or-die for API testing.
Yeah, Postman is popular and powerful. But HTTPie just... works. And it doesn't try to make me sign up for a team workspace when I'm just trying to test a login endpoint at midnight.
The environment switching between staging and production? Chef's kiss. No more "oops, I just deleted production data because I forgot to switch environments."
MongoDB Compass: When You Just Need to SEE the Data
Sure, typing mongo shell commands makes you feel like a hacker in a movie. But when you need to actually understand your data structure, or figure out why your query returns 0 results when it should return 50, Compass saves the day.
Visual representation beats staring at JSON in the terminal while your brain tries to parse nested objects.
Git + GitHub: Version Control for Adults
Controversial take: I love Git.
My workflow is boring and that's exactly why it works:
Feature branches for everything
Commit often with messages that future me will understand
Pull requests even on solo projects (yes, really)
GitHub Issues and Projects keep me organized, which is critical because my brain tries to convince me to start three new features while debugging one thing.
The real secret? Good commit messages. "Fixed stuff" doesn't help anyone. "Fixed user authentication redirect loop when session expires" helps a LOT three weeks later.
Node + Nodemon + Concurrently: The Holy Trinity
Nodemon means I don't have to manually restart my server every time I change one line of code. Which sounds small until you realize you make changes approximately 500 times per hour.
Concurrently lets me run frontend and backend servers with one command. One terminal, two servers, zero hassle.
Type npm run dev, everything starts, you get on with your life. Beautiful.
Jest + Supertest: Testing (Yes, Really)
Look, testing isn't fun. Nobody dreams of writing test cases.
But you know what's REALLY not fun? Deploying on Friday afternoon and having everything break because you changed one function and didn't realize it affected seven other things.
Jest and Supertest make testing as painless as possible. Write tests for your API endpoints, run them before you push, sleep better at night.
Notion: The Second Brain
This is where I keep everything I'll definitely forget.
Code snippets that solve specific problems. Weird bugs and how I fixed them. Architecture decisions and why I made them.
It's my external hard drive for developer knowledge. Because there's no way I'm remembering the exact CORS configuration that finally worked.
I can't count how many times I've thought "I've solved this before" and found the answer in my Notion database in 30 seconds. Plus, the fact that I can access it from anywhere (phone, tablet, borrowed laptop when mine dies) has saved me more times than I'd like to admit.
Spotify: The Secret Weapon
This isn't about being cool or having the perfect coding playlist. It's about focus.
Deep focus playlists for complex backend logic. Lo-fi for debugging when my brain hurts. The right audio environment is the difference between flow state and constantly checking Twitter.
What Actually Matters
After years of trying different setups, here's what I've learned:
The best tool is the one you'll actually use. That fancy new framework doesn't matter if you spend more time configuring it than building.
Simple beats complicated. If your setup requires 45 minutes to explain, it's too complex.
Your setup will evolve. What works now might not work in a year. That's fine.
The MERN stack comes with complexity. These tools don't eliminate it, but they make it manageable. They help me ship features instead of fighting with my environment.
And honestly? That's all I need.
What tools are essential in YOUR stack? Let's talk in the comments.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have 47 Chrome tabs to close.
Originally published on My Blog
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