The one-person stack

Every tool in your stack is a part-time job you gave yourself: something to configure, update, debug, and pay for. Teams can absorb that. You can't. So the one-person stack has a different goal than a team stack — not power, but the fewest jobs.

The shape of a good solo stack

Look at the stacks of the people on this site and a pattern shows up. DHH runs on Rails, SQLite, and Kamal. Pieter Levels ships on PHP, jQuery, and SQLite. Wildly different taste — identical shape:

• One boring core. A language and framework they've used for a decade. Zero learning happening where the money is made.
• A database that's just a file. SQLite keeps appearing because it's a dependency that can't page you at 3 a.m.
• Novelty in one slot only. New AI tool, new editor, fine — one at a time, at the edge, never in the core.

The rule of thumb

Before adding anything, ask: what job does this remove, and what job does it create? A payment provider removes a job you can't legally do yourself — clear yes. A second analytics tool creates a reconciliation job — clear no.

The goal isn't a minimal stack for its own sake. It's that every hour you spend on the stack is an hour the app didn't get. The people who ship the most own the fewest tools — and love the ones they keep.