NX with a Nest.js backend, and Next.js front-end. These tools just aren't very nice to jam together into a fullstack app. I'm really not a fan of NX itself. Lots of people love it, but I think it's way too much for most use-cases.

Furthermore, in our case, the front-end and backend are really coupled, so having these as separate systems is just a big headache. All of the web app's views are tied into specific backend functionality, and our API doesn't really stand on it's own without the front-end.

Yes this is poor architecture. I'm just pointing out a case where JAMStack was a mistake. Rails (or similar) would have been a smarter choice.

Ok I've never used Rails, but personally I've enjoyed my experience with a monorepo (pnpm workspaces) consisting of a Node.js API server and Next.js frontend server. You could try doing everything in Next.js, but I prefer keeping my backend separate. Love having everything in a monorepo though.

If you want more coupling, perhaps you could try something like ts-rest to add API types to your frontend. Or if you're feeling more adventurous, GraphQL or tRPC, though I personally prefer to avoid being tied to overly experimental frameworks.

Thanks! Yes, pnpm workspaces and turborepo are both far superior to NX IMO. They hit that sweet spot of providing the nice aspects of a monorepo without all the nightmarish configurations and complexities.

Next.js has saddened me since the move to SSR. I think remix is light-years ahead to be honest.

I will give ts-rest a look-see.