r/javascript

I’m working on pack, a simple way to deploy self-hosted apps.

I always liked the old Zeit/Vercel now flow: run one command in a project and get a URL that is persistent, immutable and does not need platform specific code.

I wanted something similar for myself, so I am working on pack.

The approach I chose is single-file executables. It builds your app into one file, uploads, and runs it.

Node, bun, deno, go, rust, zig and c/c++ all support single file executables so that part was actually pretty straightforward. The most complex part was handling port pooling, caddy setup and inactive instances.

Using single-file executables keeps server setup very minimal and makes it easy to run many small apps on a cheap VPS. It also removes the need to configure node or any other runtime on the server.

Feedback and PR's welcome!

​

Notes:

---

- Create, view, search, edit, archive, and delete plain-text notes from a tile-based dashboard.

- Live sentence, word, and character counts (Unicode-aware via `Intl.Segmenter`) while reading or editing.

- Per-note undo / redo history while editing (up to 100 steps).

- Sort notes by **Updated**, **Created**, **Title**, or **Sentence/Word/Character Count**, ascending or descending.

- Archive notes you want to keep but not see on the main dashboard; unarchive them at any time.

Import / Export:

---

- Import any plain-text file, having any extension, as a new note. Files are content-sniffed before import and unsupported files are rejected.

- Multiple files can be imported in one go.

- Export a single note as a `.txt` file.

- Export selected notes or **Export All** as a `quick-pad-notes.zip` archive.

PWA / Sync:

---

- Installable as a Progressive Web App.

- Sign in with Google to back up notes to your Drive's app-data folder (the app cannot see any other files in your Drive).

Full Disclosure: I have vibe-coded parts of it. There was a short window when I had virtually unlimited access to Claude Opus 4.7 and I wanted to make the most use of it. I must say, while I am really pleased with the results, it's not a magic wand.

Issues: The auth flow is entirely client-side, with no server-side token refresh, so you might occasionally see a pop-up window if you use Google sync.

EDIT: Forgot to link repo. Here it is: https://github.com/FlameWolf/quick-pad

written in nodejs with pnpm

try it by running:

npx rebar-js init

Github

npm package link

I'm looking for the fastest framework in the Krausest "JS Framework Benchmark" Top 15 that doesn't feel like writing assembly.

Goal: Framework performance with a clean, modern DX. I want to avoid heavy abstractions, especially since I'm using AI to scaffold logic and I need the code to be short, readable, and easy to audit.

Of the top 15, which one feels like a "real" framework but keeps the code lean and fast?

I'd appreciate some recommendations.

Did you find or create something cool this week in javascript?

Show us here!

In my previous job experiences, dealing with Selenium/Cypress/Playwright has always been an icky process.

Almost the same story every time. Someone starts building an internal test automation framework. It looks good at the start. Then it gets bloated. Low adoption among the team members. And then someone says "Oh, maybe we should rebuild it." and the toxic cycle restarts.

The thing is that AI seems to act as an accelerant. So, if you're doing something stupid, it makes you do that stupid thing faster.

I don't think the solution is to generate more Selenium/Cypress/Playwright code with AI.

I'm looking at these AI Test Automation tools that store the tests in a "human-readable" format, and not as code. Most of them are cloud tools, so they also have cross-browser clouds (e.g. you can run your test on Safari on MacOS machines from their cloud).

We want to do some POCs in the following weeks with some of these tools.

We're thinking of trying:

1. Endtest
2. Mabl
3. Functionize

Does anyone have any real experience with either of those tools?

Our requirements are:
- we need to create tests fast
- some AI self-healing mechanism to keep the tests synced with the web app
- the tool should have some API for integration with our CI/CD
- we should be able to run tests on real Safari in the cloud (not WebKit, but actual Safari)
- visual testing capabilities (aka screenshot comparison)
- accessibility testing option would be nice
- api testing option would be nice