About Chat Room
A living lab for Next.js — from the very first App Router beta to the latest cutting-edge releases.
What is this project?
Chat Room is a full-stack CRUD application that was born in 2023 as a test-bed for the Next.js 13 Beta App Router. Users can sign in with Google, create posts, and leave comments — a simple enough domain to keep the focus on the framework rather than the business logic.
Every time Next.js ships a major version, this project is upgraded and the new APIs are exercised — making it a hands-on changelog of real-world Next.js evolution.
Tech Stack
- Next.js (App Router)
Server components, streaming, caching, and server actions across versions 13 → 16+.
- TypeScript
Fully typed codebase for safer refactoring and better IDE support.
- Tailwind CSS
Utility-first styling, migrated from v3 config to the v4 CSS-first approach.
- Prisma + PostgreSQL
ORM for type-safe database access against a hosted PostgreSQL instance.
- NextAuth.js / Auth.js v5
OAuth authentication (Google) integrated with the App Router.
- TanStack Query v5
Client-side data fetching and cache invalidation alongside React Server Components.
Version Milestones
Next.js 13 Beta
First exploration of the App Router and React Server Components (RSC).
Next.js 14
Adopted server actions for mutations and removed the old pages-based API routes.
Next.js 15
Leveraged the new
unstable_cache/use cachedirective and improved streaming.Next.js 16+
Testing Cached Components, updated caching APIs, and Turbopack dev server.