Full-Stack AWS Monorepo with Next.js, NestJS, and CDK

Overview

A modern full-stack application monorepo featuring Next.js for the frontend, NestJS for the backend, and AWS CDK for infrastructure automation. The application is built with a focus on type safety, security, and scalability, organized within an NX monorepo for efficient development workflows. The architecture includes containerized deployments on ECS Fargate, PostgreSQL database with Prisma ORM, and blue-green deployment through AWS CodeDeploy.

Challenges

• Creating a unified development experience within a monorepo structure

• Implementing secure authentication and authorization across the stack

• Automating infrastructure provisioning with proper security configurations

• Designing a scalable container-based deployment architecture

• Ensuring type safety between frontend and backend services

Solutions

• Utilized NX workspace for shared code and efficient workflows

• Implemented Clerk authentication with custom JWT validation

• Defined infrastructure as code using AWS CDK for consistent deployments

• Created containerized services with ECS Fargate for scalable deployment

• Used shared DTOs and interfaces between frontend and backend

Results

• Consistent development experience with shared utilities and types

• Secure, token-based authentication with proper authorization guards

• Automated infrastructure provisioning with separation of concerns

• Blue-green deployment capability minimizing downtime

• Type-safe API interfaces between frontend and backend