The Next.js platform powering the complete rectorspace.com ecosystem
✅ Live on Vercel | ⚡ Next.js 16 · App Router | 🕌 Built with Ihsan
A single platform serving as the complete digital presence for RECTOR — combining portfolio, experiments, writings, Islamic resources, and developer tools under one unified architecture.
Philosophy: "Building for Eternity" — where technical excellence (dunya) meets purposeful impact (akhirah).
A single domain rectorspace.com with route-based sections:
| Section | Route | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏠 Homepage | / |
Identity hub & project showcase | ✅ Live |
| 💼 Work | /work |
Story-driven project narratives | ✅ Live |
| ✍️ Journal | /journal |
Native file-based markdown blog | ✅ Live |
| 📄 Apply | /apply/* |
Targeted CVs (noindex) | ✅ Live |
| 🧪 Labs | /labs |
Experiments & learning projects | 📋 Planned |
| 📚 Cheatsheet | /cheatsheet |
Developer reference & notes | 📋 Planned |
| 🕌 Dakwa / 📖 Quran | /dakwa, /quran |
Da'wah & Quranic resources | 📋 Planned |
Each new section follows the same file-based content + loader pattern — content lives in git, and deploy = publish.
Framework:
- Next.js 16 (App Router, React Server Components, SSG/ISR)
- React 19 + TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS v4 (CSS-first
@theme) - Self-hosted JetBrains Mono (WOFF2)
Content & data (no database):
- File-based markdown + YAML, committed to git
- GitHub API for live repo/contribution data, cached via ISR (hourly revalidate)
- Vitest test suite
Infrastructure:
- Deployed on Vercel (global CDN, automatic HTTPS, auto-deploy from
main) - GitHub Actions CI (lint · typecheck · test · build)
Note for contributors: this is Next.js 16 — APIs and conventions differ from older releases. See
AGENTS.mdand readnode_modules/next/dist/docs/before writing Next-specific code.
- Node.js 20+ (22 recommended)
- A GitHub token for the homepage repo/contribution data (optional — the homepage degrades gracefully without it)
# Clone
git clone https://github.com/RECTOR-LABS/core.git
cd core
# Install
npm install
# (optional) GitHub data for the homepage
echo "GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx" > .env.local # read-only public_repo scope
# Develop
npm run dev # http://localhost:3000npm run dev # dev server (Turbopack)
npm run build # production build (set GITHUB_TOKEN for live repo data)
npm run start # serve the production build
npm test # vitest
npx tsc --noEmit # typecheck
npm run lint # eslint
npm run resume:pdf # render the resume PDFWork stories and Journal posts are markdown files with YAML front matter in content/work/*.md and content/journal/*.md, loaded by framework-agnostic loaders in src/lib/content/. Achievements and CV data live in data/*.yml. To publish: add a file, commit, deploy.
src/lib/github/ fetches repos + contribution data; the homepage and /work index revalidate hourly (revalidate: 3600) — no cron, no background workers. Missing token → graceful degradation (unit-tested).
A shared src/lib/seo.ts helper single-sources every page's title, canonical, Open Graph, and Twitter card. The OG image is generated with next/og and served at /og-image.png; sitemap.ts + robots.ts round it out.
NFT-inspired warm theme via Tailwind v4 @theme tokens in src/app/globals.css — Soft Cream #FFF7E1, Deep Brown #3B2C22, Sky #41CFFF, plus WCAG-AA darkened text tokens for readable links/stats on light surfaces (accessibility 100). DHH.dk/Basecamp-inspired: minimal nav, letter-style narrative, generous whitespace. The /apply CVs ship their own dark themes. Full spec: docs/DESIGN_SYSTEM.md.
CORE began as a Rails 8 monolith, built in one weekend (Nov 2–3, 2025) and deployed to a VPS with CI/CD. In June 2026 it was rewritten as a Next.js 16 app and migrated to Vercel — a parity-first port (Journal → Homepage → Work → Apply) with full SEO, accessibility 100, and Lighthouse 100 across the board, cut over with zero downtime. The Rails implementation lives on in git history.
Philosophy applied:
- ✅ Ihsan (Excellence): edge cases, a11y, performance — 100%-working standard
- ✅ Amanah (Responsibility): production-ready, documented, maintainable
- ✅ Avoid Israf (Waste): lean, file-based, minimal dependencies
- Foundation — Homepage, Work, Journal, Apply (live)
- Migration to Next.js 16 on Vercel (full parity, a11y 100, Lighthouse 100)
- Labs — experiments & learning projects
- Cheatsheet — developer reference notes
- Dakwa & Quran — Islamic da'wah and Quranic resources
Built by RECTOR LABS with Ihsan (excellence) and Amanah (responsibility).
- Fork the repository
- Create a typed feature branch (
feat/…,fix/…,docs/…) - Commit atomically (
<type>: <description>) - Ensure CI is green (
npm run lint && npx tsc --noEmit && npm test && npm run build) - Open a Pull Request
Open source under the MIT License.
- 🌐 Website: rectorspace.com
- 📖 Project Story: rectorspace.com/work/core
- 🐙 Personal GitHub: @rz1989s
- 🏛️ Organization: RECTOR-LABS
- Next.js & Vercel — for the framework and platform
- Tailwind CSS — for the styling system
- Kenney.nl — free pixel art assets
- GitHub — for the API and platform
- Superteam — inspiring the blockchain journey
- Allah SWT — for the ability to create and learn
Built with Bismillah 🕌
May this platform bring benefit to those who visit. Aamiin.
🏛️ RECTOR LABS | Building for Eternity