A personal rebuild, a coffee with an old friend, and a website born from curiosity, exhaustion, and AI.

A Coffee That Restarted Something

A few weeks ago, I sat for a coffee with my friend Amit — someone I hadn't seen in years.

Amit was my partner at Valhalla, the software company we built together. We built a lot of things, but Valhalla itself was the most important one.

We inspired each other. We argued about architecture. We talked about life. We shipped.

And then… we didn't talk for a few years.

That coffee wasn't about tech at first — it was about life. But eventually, Amit told me about the things he's doing now: vibe-coding, experimenting with AI, building fast, playing again.

And I realized something uncomfortable:

I was learning, improving, working — but I wasn't building something just for me.

"Okay. Let's Build Something."

I didn't have a plan. I didn't have a design. I barely had sleep.

I've been in full dad mode for eight months. If you know — you know.

So I asked the simplest possible question:

"If I were to build a website in 2026 — what would my stack look like?"

The Starting Point: TanStack Start

The first real decision was easy. I wanted modern React, strong primitives, zero magic, and a future-proof architecture.

So I started with TanStack Start. That gave me TanStack Router, TanStack Query, SSR, Vite, and control over everything.

Once I was there, the next question was obvious:

If TanStack has DB and AI — why not use them?

So I did.

What Does a Website Even Need in 2026?

Initially, I wrote a boring list: Home, About, CV, maybe hobbies, maybe a blog?

Then I stopped and thought:

Nobody really browses pages anymore.

People ask questions. They search. They talk.

So instead of focusing on pages — I focused on conversation.

The AI Assistant

First Attempt: WebLLM

The idea was beautiful: no server, fully local, pure browser AI.

Reality check: heavy, slow to load, hard to control answers, and not production-ready for me.

So I parked that idea.

What Actually Works: Vercel AI SDK + Upstash

Next stop: Vercel AI SDK. Within about an hour, I had a working AI assistant with streaming responses, structured prompts, and actual control.

Architecture (Simple, On Purpose)

User
  ↓
Vercel AI SDK
  ↓
Upstash Vector Store
  ↓
Relevant context
  ↓
LLM Response

Vector Storage

I use Upstash Vector to store embeddings for my CV, blog posts, personal content, and future knowledge.

No database server. No cron jobs. No ops. Just clean infrastructure.

Hosting: Vercel

This stack is designed to disappear. So I went with Vercel for hosting, Vercel AI runtime, and Vercel analytics & speed insights.

It scales when needed. It sleeps when not. Perfect.

The Blog (Surprisingly Easy)

I didn't want a CMS, a database, or an admin panel. So I built a file-based blog.

Markdown + Frontmatter

---
title: My Stack for 2026
date: 2026-01-12
tags: [stack, ai, personal]
---

Content goes here...

I'm using gray-matter, react-markdown, remark-gfm, and rehype-highlight. No backend. No server logic. Just files.

UI & Motion

Base UI

For the foundation, I went with Radix UI for accessibility and composability, Tailwind CSS v4 for styling, and class-variance-authority, clsx, and tailwind-merge for the utility layer. This is the UI stack I trust in 2026.

Animation

I use Motion.dev for anything that moves. No animation soup. No magic numbers.

3D (Because Valhalla Never Left Me)

One thing we loved at Valhalla was Three.js. So of course I'm using three, @react-three/fiber, and @react-three/drei. Used sparingly. Only when it adds meaning. Never as decoration.

The Supporting Cast

Validation & State

For validation and types, I'm using Zod. For simple state where needed, Zustand. No global mess. No over-engineering.

Email, Analytics, and the Boring Stuff

Because real projects need boring things: Resend and react-email for transactional emails, PostHog for product analytics, Playwright for E2E tests, Vitest for unit tests, and Biome for formatting and linting.

Fast. Strict. Predictable.

The Full Stack (2026 Edition)

This is the stack I actually enjoy using today: TanStack Start, React 19, Vite, Vercel AI SDK, Upstash Vector, Radix UI, Tailwind CSS, Motion.dev, Three.js, Zod, Zustand, Resend, PostHog, Playwright, and Biome.

No hype. No cargo cult. Just tools that let me build, learn, and enjoy the process again.

Final Thought

This website isn't a product. It's not a startup. It's not a demo.

It's a reminder.

Build things. Even when you're tired. Especially when you don't know where to start.

Sometimes all it takes is a coffee with an old friend ☕