Modern AI tools let us build faster than ever. They also make it easier to ship convincing mistakes at speed.
The solution isn’t more process or more tools. It’s a small, disciplined toolchain that creates confidence through repeatable gates.
This is the minimalist setup I use to ship SaaS apps with confidence and authority — especially when working with AI assistance.
The goal isn’t “zero bugs.” That’s unrealistic.
The goal is this:
Every change passes through the same small set of checks that catch the most expensive mistakes early.
To do that, you don’t need a massive QA system. You need a few tools that work together to answer four questions:
Here’s the entire toolchain that answers those questions.
TypeScript is the first and cheapest test.
In an AI-assisted workflow, this matters more than ever. AI produces code that looks correct. TypeScript catches code that isn’t coherent.
Strict typing gives you:
If it doesn’t typecheck, it doesn’t ship.
That rule alone eliminates a surprising number of subtle bugs.
Linting isn’t about style.
It’s about enforcing constraints.
ESLint catches:
In a modern Next.js app, lint errors are often architectural warnings, not nitpicks.
Treat them seriously.
next buildnext build is where reality shows up.
It catches:
A project that “works locally” but fails next build is not production-ready.
Senior developers run builds early and often — not just in CI.
Unit tests are not about coverage.
They are about protecting invariants.
Invariants are things that must always be true:
Vitest is fast, lightweight, and good enough for this role.
You don’t need many tests here. You need the right ones.
If a bug would cost you hours to debug later, it deserves a unit test.
End-to-end tests protect reality.
They answer the only question users care about:
“Does the app actually work?”
A small Playwright suite should cover:
Three to eight tests is usually enough.
The goal is confidence, not completeness.
Tests stop at deployment.
Production is where truth lives.
Error reporting closes the loop by answering:
This isn’t optional for serious work.
Without runtime visibility, you’re shipping blind — no matter how good your tests are.
AI increases:
This toolchain creates pressure in the right places:
Each layer is simple. Together, they form a system.
You’ll notice what’s missing:
Those tools have their place.
But for most SaaS apps, they add complexity before confidence.
This setup does the opposite.
You don’t need more tools to ship confidently.
You need:
That’s enough to run the machine.
And when the machine works, you can move fast — calmly.