Welcome to Our Technical Blog

This blog isn't just a content platform — it's a production system that demonstrates how modern web engineering, AI automation, and thoughtful architecture come together. Every technical decision here reflects the same standards we apply to client projects in Berlin and across Germany.

---

Why This Architecture Exists

Most blogs are built once and maintained manually. We took a different approach: this blog is a living system that generates content, optimizes itself, and scales automatically.

The challenge: maintain consistent, high-quality technical content while keeping engineering overhead minimal. The solution: a hybrid architecture combining static generation, AI-powered automation, and intelligent caching.

---

Core Stack: Next.js 15 + React 19

We're running Next.js 15 with the App Router and React 19, which gives us:

• Server Components by default — zero client JavaScript for content pages
• Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) — pages regenerate automatically without full rebuilds
• Edge Runtime for dynamic routes and API endpoints
• TypeScript strict mode for type safety across the entire codebase

The App Router architecture means we can mix static pages, dynamic routes, and API endpoints seamlessly — perfect for a blog that needs both performance and flexibility.

---

Content Management: Contentlayer2

Instead of a traditional CMS, we use Contentlayer2 for type-safe content management:

Type-Safe Content

Every blog post is validated at build time with TypeScript:

export const Blog = defineDocumentType(() => ({
 name: 'Blog',
 filePathPattern: `**/*.mdx`,
 fields: {
 title: { type: 'string', required: true },
 description: { type: 'string', required: true },
 slug: { type: 'string', required: true },
 date: { type: 'date', required: true },
 lang: { type: 'string', required: true },
 tags: { type: 'list', of: { type: 'string' }, required: true },
 readingTime: { type: 'number', required: true },
 noindex: { type: 'boolean', required: false, default: false },
 },
}))

This means:

• Compile-time validation — invalid frontmatter breaks the build
• Autocomplete in your IDE when working with content
• Type-safe queries when fetching posts programmatically

MDX Support

We write posts in MDX, which lets us:

• Embed React components directly in articles
• Use custom syntax highlighting for code blocks
• Create interactive examples when needed

---

AI-Powered Content Generation

One of the most interesting parts of this blog: automated content generation.

The Pipeline

We built a GitHub Actions workflow that:

1. Reads from a CSV queue of article topics
2. Calls OpenAI API to generate structured drafts
3. Creates MDX files with proper frontmatter
4. Opens a Pull Request for review
5. Deploys a preview on Vercel automatically

The workflow runs every weekday at 6 AM UTC, generating one draft post per day.

Why Automate?

Manual content creation is time-consuming:

• Research and ideation
• Writing and structuring
• SEO optimization
• Formatting and validation

Our automation handles the heavy lifting while we focus on:

• Reviewing and refining drafts
• Adding technical depth
• Ensuring quality and accuracy

This isn't about replacing human creativity — it's about eliminating repetitive work so we can focus on what matters.

---

Internationalization: next-intl

We serve content in English and German using next-intl:

Smart Locale Detection

Our middleware detects user preferences and redirects accordingly:

• Browser language detection
• Cookie-based persistence
• SEO-friendly URLs (/en/blog/..., /de/blog/...)
• Googlebot optimization with proper redirects

Content Structure

Each article exists in both languages:

content/blog/
 ├── 2025-01-15-welcome-to-our-technical-blog.en.mdx
 └── 2025-01-15-welcome-to-our-technical-blog.de.mdx

This structure ensures:

• Consistent content across languages
• Independent SEO optimization per locale
• Easy maintenance and updates

---

Performance Architecture

Static Generation with ISR

Most pages are statically generated at build time, then regenerated on-demand or on a schedule:

• Build time: All pages pre-rendered
• Runtime: ISR regenerates pages when content changes
• Edge caching: Vercel's CDN caches static assets globally

Image Optimization

We use Next.js Image component with:

• WebP/AVIF formats with automatic fallbacks
• Responsive sizing for different viewports
• Lazy loading for below-the-fold content
• SVG security policies for safe rendering

Bundle Optimization

• Code splitting happens automatically
• Tree shaking removes unused code
• Console removal in production builds
• Rust-based MDX processing (mdxRs) for faster builds

---

SEO Infrastructure

Dynamic OG Images

We generate Open Graph images on-the-fly using @vercel/og:

const ogImageUrl = `${siteUrl}/api/og?title=${encodeURIComponent(title)}&description=${encodeURIComponent(description)}`

Each article gets a unique social preview image automatically.

Structured Data

Every page includes JSON-LD structured data:

• Article schema for blog posts
• Breadcrumb schema for navigation
• Organization schema for company information

This helps search engines understand our content structure.

Sitemap Generation

We use next-sitemap to generate:

• Hreflang tags for international SEO
• Dynamic blog post inclusion
• Tag page generation
• Priority and changefreq optimization

The sitemap regenerates automatically on each build.

---

Developer Experience

Type Safety Everywhere

TypeScript strict mode ensures:

• Type-safe content queries
• Compile-time error detection
• Better IDE autocomplete
• Refactoring confidence

Hot Reloading

Content changes reflect immediately in development:

• MDX files hot-reload
• Frontmatter changes update instantly
• No manual refresh needed

Automated Validation

We run validation scripts that check:

• Frontmatter schema compliance
• Link integrity
• SEO metadata completeness
• Content formatting consistency

---

What You'll Find Here

Technical Deep-Dives

We write about:

• Next.js and React architecture patterns
• Performance optimization techniques
• Backend engineering for scalable systems
• DevOps and CI/CD best practices
• AI and automation in web development

Real-World Case Studies

Learn from actual projects:

• How we solved scaling challenges
• Architecture decisions and trade-offs
• Performance improvements and metrics
• Lessons learned from production systems

Engineering Insights

Our articles focus on:

• Practical solutions over theory
• Measurable results with real metrics
• Architectural thinking for long-term maintainability
• Berlin/Germany context where relevant

---

The Automation Layer

Beyond content generation, we've automated:

Content Validation

• Frontmatter schema checks
• Link integrity validation
• SEO metadata verification
• Markdown linting

Deployment Pipeline

• Automatic preview deployments on PRs
• Production builds with optimization
• Sitemap regeneration
• Analytics integration

Monitoring

• Build time tracking
• Error rate monitoring
• Performance metrics
• Content freshness checks

---

Why This Matters

For Developers

This blog demonstrates:

• Modern Next.js patterns in production
• Type-safe content workflows
• Automation that actually works
• Performance optimization techniques

For Content Teams

We show how to:

• Scale content creation with automation
• Maintain quality at volume
• Optimize for SEO systematically
• Measure impact with metrics

For Business

This architecture enables:

• Consistent content without manual overhead
• SEO performance through automation
• International reach with i18n
• Scalable growth as content volume increases

---

The Tech Stack Summary

Core:

• Next.js 15 (App Router)
• React 19 (Server Components)
• TypeScript (strict mode)
• Contentlayer2 (content management)

Styling & UI:

• Tailwind CSS (utility-first)
• Framer Motion (animations)
• Lenis (smooth scrolling)
• Dark mode support

Automation:

• GitHub Actions (CI/CD)
• OpenAI API (content generation)
• Vercel (deployment)

SEO & Analytics:

• next-sitemap (sitemap generation)
• @vercel/og (OG images)
• JSON-LD (structured data)
• Google Analytics

---

What's Next

We're continuously improving this system:

• Enhanced AI prompts for better content quality
• Automated SEO optimization suggestions
• Performance monitoring dashboards
• Content analytics integration

If you're building a similar system or want to discuss our architecture, we're always open to sharing insights. This blog is both a showcase and a learning platform — we document what works and what doesn't.

---

This blog represents our engineering philosophy: build systems that scale, automate what's repetitive, and maintain high standards for both code and content. Every technical decision here reflects the same approach we bring to client projects in Berlin and across Germany.