First off: I’ve been sick for a while and couldn’t work on the project. Feeling better now and ready to pick things back up. The time off actually gave me space to rethink some early decisions, and I’m glad I did.
What changed and why?
In my first post I mentioned Next.js as the frontend framework. After thinking it through more carefully, I decided against it.
SkyNote’s dashboard is fully behind authentication. Every page requires a logged-in user, which means SEO doesn’t matter for the app itself. Next.js is a great framework, but its main strengths — server-side rendering, SEO, static generation — simply don’t apply here. Using it would add complexity with no real benefit. Instead I went with Vite + React 19. Pure client-side SPA. Simpler mental model, no hydration edge cases, and a much better fit for a drag-and-drop heavy interface.
The full revised tech stack:
Frontend: Vite + React 19 + React Router v7
Client state: Zustand — for UI-only state like drag mode and widget selection
Server state: TanStack Query — for all API data, caching, and background sync
Drag &amp; Drop: dnd-kit with a custom snap-to-grid implementation
Every tool was chosen deliberately. I spent time questioning each one of it, for example I looked at Redux Toolkit for state management, but between Zustand for UI state and TanStack Query for server state, Redux adds boilerplate with no real payoff for a project like this.
What’s already done
The monorepo is structured and the foundation is solid:
<ul>
<li>Full database schema defined with Drizzle</li>
<li>BetterAuth configured</li>
<li>Shared type-safe Zod schemas between frontend and backend</li>
<li>Spec-driven workflow set up, every feature gets a written spec and architecture decisions are documented before any code is written.</li>
</ul>
Revised MVP feature list
I also trimmed the feature list. Calendar and Spotify integration sound exciting but they’re scope creep at this stage. The goal is to ship something real and useful first.
<ul>
<li>Focus timer</li>
<li>Todo lists</li>
<li>Habit tracker</li>
<li>Daily reminders</li>
<li>Focus session history</li>
</ul>
One thing I’ve already learned from past projects: the ones that never shipped weren’t killed by bad ideas. They were killed by trying to build too much at once.
Keeping it focused this time.

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A developer shares an update on SkyNote, a personal dashboard project, explaining a tech stack pivot from Next.js to Vite + React 19. Since the app is fully behind authentication, SSR and SEO benefits of Next.js are irrelevant, making a pure client-side SPA a better fit. The revised stack uses Vite + React 19 + React Router v7 for the frontend, Zustand for UI state, TanStack Query for server state, and dnd-kit for drag-and-drop. The monorepo foundation is in place with Drizzle for the database schema, BetterAuth, and shared Zod schemas. The MVP feature list was also trimmed to focus timer, todo lists, habit tracker, daily reminders, and focus session history — cutting scope creep like calendar and Spotify integrations.

A quick update on SkyNote — and why I already changed things.