[RFC]: Developer Dashboard for Tracking Ecosystem Build Failures #143
Description
Full name
Dipjyoti Das
University status
Yes
University name
Gauhati University, Assam
University program
BTech in Computer Science & Engineering
Expected graduation
2027
Short biography
I'm Dipjyoti Das, a Computer Science undergraduate at Gauhati University and a Diploma holder in Computer Engineering from Assam Engineering Institute with a CGPA of 8.5. My core strengths lie in backend development and full-stack engineering, with hands-on experience in building scalable applications using the MERN stack, PostgreSQL, and RESTful APIs. I've contributed to open-source through GSSoC and Hacktoberfest 2024, ranking 27th globally with over 83 PRs focused on API development and backend architecture.
Professionally, I’ve worked as a Subject Matter Expert at Chegg India, helping students with topics like DSA, OS, DBMS, and web technologies. I've also interned in both networking and full-stack development roles, gaining practical experience with tools like Docker, JWT, Git, and MongoDB. Outside of tech, I’m passionate about building projects that solve real-world problems — one example is LegalHub, an AI-powered legal help platform.
Timezone
IST
Contact details
Email: [email protected], GitHub: @dipexplorer, LinkedIn: @dip-jyoti22
Platform
Windows
Editor
I mostly use VS Code—it's lightweight, fast, and just gets the job done. The extensions are super helpful, especially for things like Docker, Git, and Node.js.
Programming experience
I've been programming for the past couple of years, primarily using JavaScript, Node.js, C/C++, and Python. I'm comfortable working across the full stack and have built several projects using the MERN stack. Recently, I’ve been exploring Fastify, ESBuild, and setting up CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Docker, and Kubernetes.
One of my most meaningful projects is a Legal Help Platform that aims to make legal resources more accessible to the general public in India. It features AI-powered legal term search, state/category-specific document downloads, and smart suggestions—built using MongoDB, Express, and EJS. This project combines tech with social impact, which makes it close to my heart.
I’ve also built full-stack projects like EasyShop (a complete e-commerce backend) and VideTube (a video streaming backend with secure authentication and Redis caching). These projects gave me hands-on experience with tools like Postman, Cloudinary, and JWT-based auth systems.
In the open-source space, I actively contributed to GSSoC Extended and Hacktoberfest 2024, submitting 83+ PRs focused on backend optimization, API design, and security features—ranking 27th globally.
Professionally, I worked as a Subject Matter Expert at Chegg India, solving computer science problems related to DSA, OS, DBMS, and Networks. I’ve also interned in both networking and full-stack development, configuring network systems and building scalable APIs.
These experiences have helped me become a better developer, both technically and in terms of understanding real-world problem-solving.
JavaScript experience
I’ve been using JavaScript for over 3 years in both frontend and backend development. I love how flexible it is—features like async/await and first-class functions make things so much cleaner. One of my favorite parts is how easy it is to build full-stack apps quickly. What bugs me sometimes is the weird behavior of the this keyword, especially how it acts differently in regular vs async or arrow functions, and also the confusing type coercion (== vs ===).
Node.js experience
I've been working with Node.js for over two years, mainly using Express.js and MongoDB to build full-stack apps, RESTful APIs, and scalable backends. I've handled user authentication with JWT, file uploads, and caching with Redis. I’ve also explored tools like Fastify and PostgreSQL, and set up CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions.
C/Fortran experience
I’ve used C and C++ a lot during my college courses, mostly for learning data structures, algorithms, and core subjects like OS and Computer Networks. I’ve written a bunch of programs and assignments using C, especially for practicing logic building. But I, haven’t used Fortran yet.
Interest in stdlib
What really interests me about stdlib is how it brings together a wide range of high-quality, reusable standard libraries for JavaScript—something that's often missing in the ecosystem. I like that it's designed with consistency and performance in mind, making it easier to build reliable applications without depending on random third-party packages.
I used @stdlib/random module it in a Secure Password Generator project, where I needed strong, secure random values. It was easy to integrate and felt much more reliable than using Math.random().
Overall, I really appreciate the attention to detail and documentation in stdlib—it feels like something built by developers who truly care about long-term usability and maintainability.
Version control
Yes
Contributions to stdlib
I haven’t made many significant contributions yet, but I’m actively exploring the codebase and getting familiar with how everything is structured. To understand stdlib better, I built a Secure Password Generator using @stdlib/random, which gave me some practical experience with its modular utilities and performance-first approach.
So far, I’ve merged one pull request, and I’m excited to keep contributing as I dive deeper into the project and community.
stdlib showcase
I created a 🔐 Secure Password Generator
A secure, customizable password generator with a simple web interface and a Node.js + Express backend — powered by @stdlib/random. It allows users to generate strong, secure passwords with full control over length and character types.
🚀 Features:
Instantly generate strong, secure passwords
Customization options:
🔢 Length: 4–128 characters
🔠 Include uppercase letters (A–Z)
🔡 Include lowercase letters (a–z)
🔢 Include numbers (0–9)
🔣 Include symbols (!@#$%^&* etc.)
🔐 Secure random generation using @stdlib/random/base/discrete-uniform
🌐 Clean web UI + REST API support
This project gave me hands-on experience with stdlib’s modular packages and showed how powerful and flexible they can be in building real-world tools.
Goals
Summary of the Proposal
The stdlib ecosystem spans over 4000 repositories, each playing a vital role in a larger, interlinked system. Managing and debugging build failures at this scale is tough without a centralized view. This project aims to build a clean, developer-focused dashboard that highlights failing builds, historical job performance, and CI stats across the ecosystem — all in one place. With an intuitive UI, smart filters, and real-time insights, contributors can catch issues faster, stay informed, and maintain code quality with less friction.
Benefits to Community
The stdlib project is a massive, well-structured ecosystem — but with scale comes complexity. Keeping everything running smoothly demands constant monitoring of builds, tests, and interdependencies.
This dashboard project tackles that head-on.
By providing a centralized view of build failures and CI health, it makes life easier for maintainers and contributors alike. No more digging through scattered CI logs or tracing issues across dozens of repos. Here’s how it helps:
Faster Issue Resolution
Quickly pinpoint which build broke, where, and how it affects downstream packages — so fixes happen before problems escalate.
Smarter Debugging
Historical data, workflow failures, and trends — all in one place. This helps contributors prioritize and focus efforts where they’re needed most.
Lower Entry Barrier
New contributors don’t need deep CI knowledge. The dashboard surfaces exactly where help is needed, making onboarding easier and contribution faster.
More Transparency & Trust
A clear, real-time view of ecosystem health builds trust and reinforces stdlib’s reputation for quality and reliability.
Built for Growth
As the ecosystem expands, this dashboard ensures maintainability at scale — with automation doing the heavy lifting.
This isn’t just a dashboard — it’s a smarter, scalable way to keep the ecosystem healthy and collaborative.
UI Mockups & Feature Overview
To provide a clear picture of the proposed Developer Dashboard, I’ve designed initial wireframes that reflect the core functionality and experience I aim to deliver. The dashboard is focused on simplicity, visibility, and efficiency — tailored to the needs of maintainers and contributors in the stdlib ecosystem.
1️⃣ Dashboard Overview Page (Home)
This is the main entry point of the dashboard, showing a snapshot of the build status across all stdlib repositories. Key components include:
- 🔍 Search and Filter: Quickly locate a specific repository.
- 🟢🔴 Build Status Table: Live status of builds (pass/fail), commit info, duration, trigger type.
- 📜 Failure Reason and Logs: One-click access to logs and root cause insights.
- ⏳ Time Filter + Refresh: Filter builds by time range and refresh in real-time.
- 🛠️ Actions: Retry build, open CI/CD, view commit, etc.
2️⃣ Repository-Specific Page
Each repository has its own detailed view, showing:
- 📌 Repo Metadata: Description, license, stars, forks, open PRs/issues.
- 🧪 Build Breakdown: Step-by-step status for Install, Test, Lint, etc.
- 🛑 Failure Analysis: What failed, why it failed (with detailed logs).
- 💡 Suggested Fixes: Contextual tips like failing test lines or commit info.
- 📁 Clone & Install Instructions: For contributors to reproduce locally.
- 📉 Recent Build History: Timeline of past builds for this repo.
3️⃣ 📊 Reports Page
The Reports section aggregates ecosystem-wide statistics to help track trends and problem areas over time. It includes:
- 📈 Build Metrics (last 7/30 days):
- Total builds, success rate, average duration, P95 times.
- ❌ Top Failures:
- Most failing repositories, steps, and test cases.
- 🔍 Failure Trends:
- Breakdown of reasons, frequency, and changes week-over-week.
- 🚨 Problem Area Highlights:
- Helps maintainers prioritize high-impact fixes.
🛠️ Technical Approach – Design & Implementation Details
This section outlines the complete architecture and design of the Developer Dashboard for Tracking Ecosystem Build Failures, including the backend, frontend, GitHub integration, scheduling, testing, and deployment strategies.
- System Architecture Overview
The system follows a modular and scalable full-stack architecture:
- Frontend: Built with React, Tailwind CSS, and Vite/ESBuild.
- Backend: REST API using Node.js with Express.js (or Fastify).
- Database: PostgreSQL (schema: stdlib_github) for persistent and relational data storage.
- Scheduler: Cron jobs for periodic data collection (or GitHub Webhooks for real-time updates).
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions for auto-deployment and test pipelines.
2. GitHub Integration & Log Fetching
- Use the GitHub REST API and GitHub Actions API to fetch build logs, workflow run data, commit metadata, and job-level info.
- Data will be fetched for every stdlib-js repository.
- GitHub OAuth tokens or GitHub App will authenticate scheduled data-fetching scripts.
3. Log Parsing Engine
Parse logs retrieved from GitHub Actions to extract:
- Build status & conclusion
- Errors or failed steps
- Timestamps and duration
- Optional: Integrate parsers for commonly failing patterns to highlight frequent issues.
4. Database Design (PostgreSQL)
Data is stored in the stdlib_github schema. The schema consists of interlinked tables to track repositories, workflows, events, job details, code coverage, and download stats.
Key Tables:
- repository: GitHub repo metadata
- workflow_run: CI build run results
- workflow_job: Individual job status
- commit, tag, event: Git metadata and GitHub activities
- coverage: Statement, line, branch, and function coverage
- npm_download_count and npm_rolling_version_download_count: Download metrics
- npm_publish: Publish size, version, and license info
5. Backend API Layer
- Built with Express or Fastify for performance.
- Endpoints: /api/builds, /api/repository/:id, /api/reports/summary, /api/reports/trends
- All APIs return JSON. Pagination and filtering via query params.
- The API uses parameterized queries with pg to securely access PostgreSQL. Pagination, sorting, and filtering are supported.
6. Frontend Dashboard (React + Tailwind)
The dashboard UI provides:
- Overview Dashboard (/)
- Repository Detail Page (/repository/:id)
- Reports & Trends (/reports)
- Built with React, styled using Tailwind CSS, and Focus on responsive design and accessibility (ARIA labels, keyboard navigation).
- Draft Proposal
View Proposal
Why this project?
What excites me most about this project is its potential to improve the development experience across the entire stdlib ecosystem. As someone who has spent time exploring the monorepo structure, CI workflow, and how ecosystem build failures affect contributors, I’ve seen how challenging it can be to quickly pinpoint the root cause of a failure. Building a centralized dashboard to surface this information—clearly and accessibly—feels like a meaningful step toward solving a real pain point.
It also aligns well with my skill set and interests. I enjoy working on full-stack systems and solving real-world developer problems. This project offers the perfect blend of backend logic, CI log parsing, and user-focused design — all while contributing to an open-source tool I believe in
Qualifications
I’m a backend-focused developer with solid experience in Node.js and Express, along with MongoDB. I’ve built several full-stack applications and recently started exploring PostgreSQL to deepen my understanding of relational databases.
For this project, I’ve already familiarized myself with stdlib’s monorepo structure, GitHub Actions workflow, and how ecosystem builds are managed. I also have experience with Git version control, CI/CD setups, and have actively contributed to open-source projects through programs like GSSoC and Hacktoberfest.
To demonstrate practical use of stdlib, I created a Secure Password Generator using @stdlib/random, showcasing my ability to apply stdlib modules in real-world scenarios. Additionally, I’ve submitted a PR to stdlib and continue exploring ways to contribute meaningfully.
Prior art
The idea of tracking ecosystem build failures is not entirely new — tools like npm’s status dashboard offer similar insights for their ecosystems. GitHub Actions and CI services provide logs, but they lack centralized insights across a monorepo at scale.
What sets this stdlib dashboard apart is its focus on providing actionable, aggregated build insights tailored for stdlib’s unique modular monorepo structure — something not readily available in other ecosystems.
Commitment
I’m fully committed to this project and will dedicate 35–40 hours per week (or more, if needed) throughout the GSoC period. My final semester exams are scheduled for May, after which I’ll be completely free and available full-time.
I’ve ensured there are no other commitments during the coding phase. I’ll be responsive across all channels—GitHub, Gitter, or any preferred platform—and will actively participate in meetings and async discussions. Beyond GSoC, I’m excited to keep contributing to stdlib and grow as a long-term community member.
Schedule
Assuming a 12 week schedule,
Community Bonding (May 8 - June 1)
- Engage with mentors to clarify expectations, deliverables, and communication flow.
- Finalize the tech stack (Node.js with Express/Fastify, PostgreSQL, Tailwind, Vite).
- Set up your development environment, tooling, and GitHub repo.
- Try connecting to existing PostgreSQL data early on.
Week 1 (Finalize Requirements & Setup)
- Incorporate mentor feedback and finalize key dashboard features and pages.
- Scaffold backend using Express/Fastify and connect to stdlib_github using pg.
- Define basic folder structure and setup scripts for dev/test environments.
- Create a simple /api/builds endpoint that returns mock build data from DB.
Week 2: Dashboard Overview Table
- Set up frontend with JSX + ESBuild + Tailwind CSS.
- Build the base UI for the Dashboard Overview Page with static table rows.
- Add columns: Repo Name, Build Status, Commit SHA, Trigger Type, Timestamp, etc.
- Fetch and render real build data from /api/builds.
Week 3 : Dashboard Filters, Sorting & Pagination
- Implement filters: Repository, Build Status + Time Range + Refresh.
- Add pagination (server-side) and column sorting (e.g., newest first, duration).
- Make commit SHA clickable with GitHub redirection + copy-to-clipboard.
- Use PostgreSQL indexes to optimize queries.
Week 4: Repository-Specific Page (Phase 1)
- Create /repository/:id route showing all builds of a specific repo.
- Build summary cards:
- Total Builds, Success Rate, Avg Duration, Last Failure Date.
- Implement API /api/repository/:id to return repository-specific builds and metrics.
- Use reusable components from the overview dashboard to keep consistency.
Week 5: Repository Detail Page (Phase 2)
- Enhance the detail page with build step/job breakdown (Install, Test, Linting, etc).
- Highlight latest successful and failed builds with visual badges.
- Show commit SHA, author, branch, event trigger, and total duration.
- Link each row to a full build log or expandable detail section.
- Add copy/log snippet buttons for failure reproduction steps.
Week 6 : Polish & Midterm Evaluation
- Polish UI for both Overview and Repository pages.
- Improve responsiveness and dark mode.
- Write unit tests for critical routes and API endpoints.
- Prepare and submit midterm evaluation deliverables.
- Address any mentor feedback and suggestions.
Week 7: Reports Dashboard – Phase 1
- Create /reports page layout.
- Backend: Add /api/reports/summary to return:
- Total Builds, Success Rate, Avg Duration, New Failures.
- Frontend: Display summary stats for the last 7 days.
- Add toggle for 7/30 day views (static for now).
Week 8: Reports Dashboard – Phase 2
Backend: Add /api/reports/trends for:
- Daily success/failure data, top failure reasons, failing repos/tests.
Frontend: - Line chart (build trend over time).
- Pie chart (success vs failure ratio).
- Lists: top failing repos and tests.
Week 9: Final Testing & Bug Fixing
- Test all core features and API endpoints.
- Fix bugs, edge cases, and data sync issues.
- Optimize slow queries and response times.
- Deliverable: 60–70% test coverage + stable backend.
Week 10: Design Cleanup & Accessibility
- Polish UI layout, spacing, and responsiveness.
- Clean up unused styles/components.
- Ensure dark mode consistency.
Week 11: Mentor Review & Final Tweaks
- Share project with mentors for review.
- Make final improvements and adjustments.
- Write test coverage summary and known limitations (if any).
Week 12: Deployment & Documentation
- Prepare production-ready build and deploy to demo environment.
- Finalize README, API docs, usage guide.
- Submit GSoC final report and video demo.
Related issues
No response
Checklist
- I have read and understood the Code of Conduct.
- I have read and understood the application materials found in this repository.
- I understand that plagiarism will not be tolerated, and I have authored this application in my own words.
- I have read and understood the patch requirement which is necessary for my application to be considered for acceptance.
- I have read and understood the stdlib showcase requirement which is necessary for my application to be considered for acceptance.
- The issue name begins with
[RFC]:and succinctly describes your proposal. - I understand that, in order to apply to be a GSoC contributor, I must submit my final application to https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ before the submission deadline.