Archived

QRaten PWA Archived

Solo developer · 2025 · Version 6 phase · 1 person · 3 min read

The sixth QRaten rebuild was the first serious PWA attempt, but it was eventually archived so the product could be rebuilt from scratch in a cleaner and more scalable way.

Overview

This archived project represents the sixth version of QRaten. It was an important step in the product journey because it exposed the complexity problems that the final version later solved.

Problem

The previous attempt was trying to become too much too early. The result was unnecessary complexity, slower progress, and an architecture that no longer matched the product's actual needs.

Constraints

  • The project needed to prove the idea quickly, but the implementation became overengineered.
  • The architecture became harder to maintain than it should have been for an MVP.
  • The team size was effectively one person, so every extra layer of complexity had a direct cost.

Approach

The sixth version was built as an exploratory PWA attempt. It helped validate the product direction, but it also made clear that the right move was to stop patching the old implementation and start over with a better plan. In practice, the archived version became the product's best teacher.

Evolution

v6

Archived phase

First serious PWA attempt, later abandoned because the architecture became too complex.

Key Decisions

Archive the sixth version instead of trying to preserve it

Reasoning:

The architecture had become too complex, and a fresh rebuild would be faster and safer than forcing the old version to continue.

Alternatives considered:
  • Continue refactoring the same codebase
  • Keep adding features on top of the old structure
  • Freeze the project indefinitely

Treat the archived version as product research

Reasoning:

The work was not wasted. It clarified the technical and product boundaries that the final version needed to respect.

Alternatives considered:
  • Discard everything learned
  • Reuse the code without changing the approach
  • Start a completely unrelated product

Tech Stack

  • Next.js
  • Supabase
  • PWA architecture

Result & Impact

  • This was QRaten version 6.
    Version number
  • It directly informed the cleaner seventh rebuild.
    Strategic value

Although the project was archived, it had high strategic value because it revealed which parts of the product were worth keeping and which parts should be redesigned.

Learnings

  • A failed version is still valuable when it clarifies what the real product should be.
  • Archiving a version can be a strong product decision when it prevents long-term technical drag.
  • A simpler architecture is usually the better choice for an MVP.

Challenges & Pivots

  • The implementation grew in complexity faster than the product needed.
  • The structure was not efficient enough to support a simple and reliable MVP.
  • The project was eventually abandoned so the lessons could be applied to a better rebuild.

Engineering Leadership

Why was this version archived?

Because it became unnecessarily complex and would have taken more time to untangle than to rebuild.

Was the work wasted?

No. It became the foundation for the final public version, which is much cleaner and faster.

Timeline Highlights

  • Version 6 became the first serious PWA attempt.
  • The project was archived after its complexity outgrew its usefulness.
  • The lessons from this version directly shaped the current QRaten release.

Content

Overview

This project is the sixth version of QRaten and the first serious attempt to turn the idea into a PWA. It mattered because it showed where the product was starting to work and where it was becoming too complicated.

Why it was archived

The main reason for archiving it was simple: the project had become more complex than the problem it was supposed to solve. Instead of keeping that complexity and building on top of it, the better move was to start over and apply the lessons to a cleaner version.

What this version taught

The archived build clarified the importance of keeping the architecture lean. It also showed that early product validation should focus on the shortest path to a usable experience, not on trying to anticipate every possible future requirement.

Repository: https://github.com/AndresEduardoRA/archived-qraten-pwa-old

Related project: Current QRaten PWA

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