Forem: Javier Huang

People keep suggesting features for StackDAG, and it’s growing faster than I expected

Javier Huang — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 13:42:29 +0000

It’s been four weeks since StackDAG launched into public beta, and the community keeps growing stronger.

Here’s what’s new in Week 4:

New Components: Over 50 new nodes added this week, ranging from CDN providers and Laravel-related tools, to Analytics services and more. Huge thanks to everyone who suggested these on Reddit, Discord, and through the feedback form. Keep them coming!
Tutorial Walkthrough: A new guided experience now shows up when you’re not signed in and visit the DAG page, making it easier for new users to get started.

Multi-Component Selection: You can now add multiple components at once when building your DAGs, which is a highly requested feature from the community.

Laravel Templates: Based on the official Laravel stack templates, now available under the experimentation section. Feedback is welcome on how to improve them.

UI & Performance Improvements:

Scaffolding effects added to DAG list pages (public DAGs, my DAGs, user profiles, etc).

Fresh new look and better mobile support for critical components. Feedback is welcome!

Skeleton loading effects for a smoother experience.
Login & signup issues resolved, and authentication is seamless now.

Sneak Peek at What’s Next:

Annotations on DAGs (drawing), which will be helpful for presentations
AI-assisted DAG editing and stack suggestions.
Instructional guidance for connecting components together.
Long-term vision: an AI agent that can understand and shape full tech stacks through DAGs.

Join the Beta: https://stackdag.pages.dev
Discord: https://discord.gg/VqwqHmg5fn

All beta accounts are marked as early testers and will get early access to upcoming premium features.

Thanks again for being part of StackDAG’s journey, and let’s make Week 5 even bigger.

Users using StackDAG for app planning!

Javier Huang — Sat, 16 Aug 2025 19:17:35 +0000

It’s been three weeks since StackDAG launched into public beta, and the community keeps growing. Thanks to everyone who’s been building stacks, sharing ideas, and making this project better every week.

Here’s what’s new in Week 3:

New Components: Several new component nodes have been added, including Google Maps. Keep the suggestions coming, as many of these additions are driven directly by feedback from the community.

Security Fixes: A few more issues were patched this week. As always, if you notice anything unusual or potentially vulnerable, please reach out. Early feedback is incredibly valuable.
Visual Improvements: A handful of visual bugs were fixed, along with small UI tweaks to make StackDAG smoother to use.

Weekly Challenge 2

Submissions are in, and now it’s time to vote! Join the Discord to see the entries, cast your vote, and take part in future challenges: https://discord.gg/VqwqHmg5fn

And a quick community shoutout: People are already using StackDAG to plan out their apps and even asking for advice in here. I couldn’t be prouder of how collaborative and supportive this community is becoming.

Join the Beta: Start building your first DAG at https://stackdag.pages.dev

During the beta, all accounts get marked as early testers and will receive early access to upcoming premium features.

Thanks again for being part of StackDAG’s journey. Let’s make Week 4 even bigger.

Weekly Challenge #2 - StackDAG

Javier Huang — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 12:48:58 +0000

It’s been two weeks since StackDAG launched into public beta. Thanks to everyone who’s been building stacks, sharing feedback, and joining the community.

New: Weekly Challenges (You can participate!)

A new way to learn and share. Each week, we set a theme or criteria for creating a public DAG. It’s a fun way to explore full-stack or application development while seeing what others in the community build. We’re now on Weekly Challenge #2 (WC 2), and all submissions get a special WC tag on their DAG. You can find the full details and participate in our Discord: https://discord.gg/VqwqHmg5fn

Example submission from Week 1:

Here’s what’s new in Week 2:

Payment Processor Nodes: Stripe, PayPal, and similar components have been added to the Integration category, thanks to suggestions from community members. You can contribute to adding more node types by joining the Discord server!
Generic Nodes: One generic node per category for ultimate flexibility. You can rename these to suit your needs like any other node, except they are not tied to a specific technology. If there’s a specific component you’d like added, let us know via Discord or the feedback form on the site.
Security Fixes: As in Week 1, a few more security issues were patched. If you notice anything unusual or potentially vulnerable, please reach out as early reports are incredibly helpful during beta, as evidenced by these past two weeks.
Other Improvements: Minor UI improvements and bug fixes based on user reports.

Join the Beta: You can start building your first DAG at https://stackdag.pages.dev

During the beta, all accounts get marked as early testers and will receive early access to upcoming premium features.

Thanks again to everyone who’s been part of these first two weeks. Week 3 is already in motion, so stay tuned for more!

StackDAG Beta - Week 1 Update (August 2, 2025)

Javier Huang — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 18:05:02 +0000

It’s been one week since StackDAG launched into public beta. Thanks to everyone who’s tried it out and shared feedback so far.

Here’s what’s new in Week 1:

Fresh Homepage Look - The homepage has been redesigned to better communicate what StackDAG is and how to get started quickly.
Security Fixes - A few early security issues were patched. If you ever notice anything off or potentially vulnerable, please don’t hesitate to reach out, as early feedback is incredibly helpful.
Custom Node Titles & Descriptions - You can now name and describe individual components within your DAGs, making it easier to organize and document your stacks.
New Suggested Component - Railway has been added as a recommended component. You can now include it when building your backend stack. You can recommend even more components or DAG templates if you wish! That’s the power of beta.
Bug Fixes & UI Improvements - Thanks to user reports, several minor bugs and UI inconsistencies were resolved.

Join the Beta: If you're interested in helping shape the future of StackDAG, now’s the time. You can join the beta at: https://stackdag.pages.dev

We also have an active Discord where updates are shared and ideas are discussed: https://discord.gg/VqwqHmg5fn

During the beta, all accounts get marked as early testers and will receive early access to upcoming premium features.

Thanks again to everyone who's been testing and sharing feedback. More updates are coming soon!

DAGs are better than lists for modeling tech stacks

Javier Huang — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:22:37 +0000

This is part of a series I’m writing while building StackDAG, a tool for designing and sharing application stacks using DAGs. You can try the beta here: https://stackdag.pages.dev/, and join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/VqwqHmg5fn.

I’ve just launched StackDAG at https://stackdag.pages.dev/ into public beta, which is a platform for building and sharing application stacks using Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). You can model anything from a traditional PERN stack (React, Express, Node.js, PostgreSQL) to a completely custom workflow using a flexible, visual DAG editor.

During the beta, you’ll get access to:

DAG templates to get started fast
A broad set of components to build any stack
Sharing and forking tools to collaborate or remix ideas
A feed of trending DAGs from the community

You’re invited to join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/VqwqHmg5fn That’s where I’ll be mainly sharing updates and collecting feedback.

If you join during this beta phase, your account will be marked as a beta tester (you’ll keep that role in Discord too), and you’ll get early access to premium features as they roll out in future releases.

This is the best time to get involved. I’m very open to feedback during this stage, so if you have thoughts or ideas, this is your chance to make your mark, as there will be frequent updates!

Thanks for checking it out!