Case Study

Business Rationale

Open source reflects the values driving Kurocado Studio:

• Transparency — clients can inspect our engineering standards

• Credibility — real code is more trust-building than marketing

• Community — creators learn best when the work is visible

• Differentiation — most studios hide their methodology; we share ours

Open-sourcing aligns with the “build in public” culture I admire. It positions the studio not just as a service provider, but as a platform-driven engineering organization.

Engineering Rationale

Open source enforces:

• better documentation

• clearer architecture

• reusable tooling

• consistency across repos

• community feedback loops

It also serves the studio’s educational goals — letting developers learn directly from real, production-grade scaffolding.

Repeated Engineering Work

Every project required its own:

• TS configs

• ESLint rules

• Build setup

• Testing utilities

• CI/CD YAML

• Documentation patterns

• Release processes

This creates the same scaling problems I’ve seen inside enterprise platform teams.

Inconsistent Standards Across Projects

Without a shared foundation:

• UI patterns diverge

• Design tokens drift

• Code quality varies

• Versioning becomes chaotic

• Onboarding slows down

High Maintenance Cost for a Small Team

As a solo engineer (for now), maintaining multiple standalone repos would eventually collapse under its own weight. I needed to solve the problem systemically, not project-by-project.

Engineering Goals

• Create a TypeScript-first platform for all studio products

• Make new repo setup take minutes, not hours

• Guarantee that every app uses the same standards

• Automate everything: linting, tests, docs, releases

• Support both monorepo and standalone structures

• Ensure React, Vue, and design system components share the same foundation

Business Goals

• Reduce engineering overhead for future client projects

• Create a scalable base for the studio’s educational tools

• Strengthen brand differentiation through open-source quality

• Build systems that allow one engineer to maintain a full product ecosystem

Platform-First Thinking

Instead of configuring tooling per repo, I solved it once:

• one set of tsconfigs

• one ESLint preset

• one design token system

• one release pipeline

• one workflow for docs

• one pattern for routing, folders, and build steps

Everything inherits from the platform.

Architecture Strategy

• PNPM workspaces

• Turborepo build pipelines

• Internal and public package boundaries

• Reusable GitHub Actions workflows

• Automated semantic releases

• Docs-as-code deployed via GitHub Pages

This approach ensures all studio projects evolve together, not apart.

Monorepo Architecture

Core packages include:

• @kurocado/tsconfig — shared TS config

• @kurocado/eslint-config — linting standards

• @kurocado/utils — shared logic

• @kurocado/design-tokens — future design system foundation

• @kurocado/workflows — reusable GitHub Actions

Every project — FormKit, the Daily UI Challenge App, the design system — inherits these automatically.

Reusable CI/CD Workflows

Any repo can import the studio workflows:

This gives every project:

• linting

• testing

• documentation

• semantic versioning

• changelog automation

• npm publishing

• tag pushes

• works for both monorepos and standalone repos via the monorepo input

No duplication. No drift.

See CI/CD Workflows for diagrams of how these pieces connect.

Automated Release System

The release workflow:

• reads commits

• determines semantic version bump

• generates release notes

• updates the changelog

• publishes to npm

• pushes tags

• works for both monorepo and standalone packages

This eliminates the manual release chaos many teams face.

Documentation Pipeline

Every repo automatically:

• builds docs

• deploys to GitHub Pages

• inherits a consistent documentation structure

• stays synchronized with the platform

Documentation is part of the product — especially because everything is OSS.

Developer Experience Improvements

• opinionated defaults

• instant repo setup

• consistent folder structure

• debug-friendly logs in CI/CD

• shared tokens and UI foundations

• unified testing strategy

• long-term maintainability

The platform enables me to build faster — without sacrificing quality.

Reusable Workflows

GitHub Actions are powerful but restrictive. I built clean input interfaces and centralized secrets to keep repos isolated but consistent.

Supporting Both React and Vue

Shared tooling abstracts framework differences so all projects behave the same under the hood.

Monorepo Release Complexity

I implemented logic to detect package changes and apply versioning intelligently.

Avoiding Platform Bloat

I kept the platform focused: strong defaults, minimal configuration, no unnecessary abstractions.

Engineering Impact

• All Kurocado Studio projects now share the same engineering standards

• New project setup takes minutes

• Releases are fully automated

• Zero configuration drift across repos

• One engineer can maintain a multi-product ecosystem

Business Impact

• Faster delivery for client work

• Stronger studio identity built on transparent engineering

• A reusable foundation for educational content and tutorials

• Enterprise-quality consistency without enterprise headcount

What I Learned About Platform Design

A strong platform turns one engineer into a team. Building this foundation taught me how much leverage comes from solving problems once and inheriting the solution everywhere.

How This Reflects My Career Direction

I realized I genuinely love architecting systems like this — the kind of high-leverage, cross-cutting work that powers entire product suites. This project represents where I’m most effective and where I want to keep growing: platform engineering, frontend architecture, and systems that scale.