DevSpin

A random tech topic generator to fuel a daily blog-writing habit. Hit spin, get a topic pulled from a curated bank spanning frontend, backend, databases, infra, testing, AI, and more — then go read up and write about it.

No login. No history. No tracking. Just an honest random topic generator.

How it works

DevSpin holds a bank of topics in Postgres, built by crossing technologies (React, PostgreSQL, Docker, etc.) with concepts (caching, testing, load balancing, etc.) within matching domains, plus a set of standalone systems-design topics (CAP Theorem, Microservices, OAuth 2.0, and similar). Every spin is a fully random pick from the whole bank.

Tech stack

• Framework: Next.js (App Router, Server Actions)
• Database: PostgreSQL via Neon
• ORM: Drizzle
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Language: TypeScript

Getting started

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/rhittik12/devspin.git
cd devspin
npm install

2. Set up your database

Create a free project at neon.tech and grab your connection string.

Copy .env.example to .env.local and add it:

DATABASE_URL=your-neon-connection-string

3. Push the schema

npx drizzle-kit push

This creates the topics table in your database.

4. Seed the topic bank

npm run seed

This populates topics from scripts/data/technologies.ts, concepts.ts, and standalone-topics.ts.

5. Run it

npm run dev

Open localhost:3000 and hit spin.

Project structure

app/
  page.tsx                 # Home - spin button + topic card
  actions/spin.ts           # Server action that picks a random topic
  layout.tsx
components/
  topic-card.tsx             # Displays the current topic
  spin-button.tsx
  ui/                          # Button, badge primitives
db/
  schema.ts                     # Drizzle table definition
  index.ts                       # DB connection
  queries/topics.ts               # getRandomTopic query
scripts/
  seed.ts                          # Seeds the topic bank
  data/                              # Raw technology/concept/standalone lists
lib/
  types.ts                            # Shared Topic type

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — this is a small project and a good one to get your feet wet with Next.js, Drizzle, or just adding more topics.

1. Grow the topic bank (easiest way to contribute)

Add more entries to scripts/data/technologies.ts, concepts.ts, or standalone-topics.ts, then run npm run seed locally to confirm it generates sensible topics before opening a PR. Keep the domain tags consistent with the existing entries — a technology and a concept only get crossed together if they share a domain, so mismatched tags produce topics that never get generated.

2. Improve the product

Have an idea for how DevSpin could be better — UI, performance, features, code quality, anything? Just raise a PR for it.

To contribute code:

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
3. Make your changes
4. Commit: git commit -m "Add: short description"
5. Push: git push origin feature/your-feature-name
6. Open a pull request

Please keep PRs focused — one change per PR is easier to review than a bundle of unrelated changes.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.