I open-sourced Commune: a TypeScript MERN community platform you can fork and build on

Haseeb MernStack — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:19:19 +0000

I wanted a full-stack project that goes beyond a todo app, something with real
authentication, real data modeling and a structure other developers could learn from.
So I built Commune, an open source community platform on the MERN stack, and I'm
releasing it today.

🔗 GitHub: https://github.com/Haseeb-MernStack/commune.git

What it is

Commune is a TypeScript monorepo with a React frontend, an Express + MongoDB backend
and a shared package for validation and types.

What's inside

Secure auth: short-lived JWT access tokens plus rotating httpOnly refresh cookies. Refresh tokens are stored as SHA-256 hashes with a TTL index.
Posts, comments and likes: with cursor-based pagination and a database-enforced one-like-per-user rule.
Shared Zod schemas: the same validation runs in the browser and on the server, so the two never drift apart.
Hardening: Helmet, CORS, rate limiting, body size limits and centralized error handling.
Tooling: Docker Compose for MongoDB and the API, plus a GitHub Actions workflow.

Tech stack

React 18 · Vite · TanStack Query · Express · Mongoose · Zod · TypeScript · Docker

Run it locally

git clone https://github.com/Haseeb-MernStack/commune.git
cd commune
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d mongo
npm install
npm run dev

The API runs on localhost:4000 and the web app on localhost:5173.

Where I'd love your help

Follows and a personalized feed
Image uploads
Real-time notifications
Moderation tools
More tests, especially database-backed ones

I've labeled a few issues good first issue so it's easy to jump in. If you're
looking for your first open source contribution, this is a friendly place to start.

Feedback welcome

What would you build first? What would you change in the architecture? Tell me in the
comments, and if the project is useful to you, a ⭐ on GitHub means a lot.

Follow me on Instagram

Haseeb MernStack — Mon, 18 May 2026 08:03:03 +0000

https://www.instagram.com/haseeb_mernstack/

DevLaunch

Haseeb MernStack — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:25:52 +0000

I built a free modern SaaS landing page template using pure HTML, CSS & JS. Open source.

Repo Link 👉 https://github.com/Haseeb-MernStack/devlaunch-modern-saas-template

Live 👉 https://haseeb-mernstack.github.io/devlaunch-modern-saas-template/

DEV Community: Haseeb MernStack