I would start just after the README commit, and I would resist the temptation to immediately add another feature.

The architecture is working. Now we need to decide what Jaroa 1.0 actually means as a product, not merely as a technical experiment.

My recommended next step: establish the Jaroa application lifecycle

Right now we have:

Browser
   ↓
Frontend
   ↓
Router
   ↓
Controller
   ↓
Service
   ↓
ApiClient
   ↓
Backend API

That is a good skeleton.

But before adding things like authentication, caching, templates, an installer, database abstractions, etc., I would make one small but important pass through the frontend and answer:

What exactly happens when a request enters Jaroa?

I would like us to trace one complete request from:

https://frontend.ddev.site/

through:

public/index.php
        ↓
Application
        ↓
Router
        ↓
Controller
        ↓
Service
        ↓
ApiClient
        ↓
backend.ddev.site

and back to:

JSON
 ↓
Service
 ↓
Controller
 ↓
View
 ↓
HTML

Why start here?

Because this becomes the spine of Jaroa.

Once this lifecycle is clean, we can build everything else around it.

For example:

                  JAROA
                    │
             HTTP Request
                    │
                    â–¼
              Application
                    │
                    â–¼
                 Router
                    │
                    â–¼
               Controller
                    │
                    â–¼
                 Service
                    │
                    â–¼
                ApiClient
                    │
                    â–¼
              Backend API
                    │
                    â–¼
                 Response
                    │
                    â–¼
                Service
                    │
                    â–¼
               Controller
                    │
                    â–¼
                  View
                    │
                    â–¼
                  HTML

If that pipeline is understandable, predictable, and pleasantly boring, we’ve done something important.

Then I would move toward Jaroa’s first real “application”

After validating the lifecycle, my preferred sequence would be:

Step 1. Request lifecycle

Make sure the current architecture is coherent.

Step 2. Configuration

Establish a clean way for Jaroa to know things such as:

APP_URL
API_URL
APP_ENV

without scattering configuration throughout the code.

Step 3. Error handling

Give Jaroa a sensible response when:

  • a route doesn’t exist
  • the API is unavailable
  • the backend returns an error
  • malformed data comes back

Step 4. Views and layouts

Establish a small, clean view system.

We already have:

views/
├── components/
├── layouts/
└── pages/

I’d like to understand and formalize that before creating more templates.

Step 5. First Jaroa template

Then we can build something tangible:

Jaroa Blog

or perhaps:

Jaroa Profile

This is where the architecture starts proving itself.

Step 6. Extract reusable pieces

Only after building the first application do we ask:

“Which parts are genuinely Jaroa?”

That’s when abstractions become evidence-based rather than speculative.

So I would not start with an installer

The installer is part of the vision:

Clone
  ↓
Configure
  ↓
Install
  ↓
Choose Blog/Profile/etc.
  ↓
Jaroa application

But building the installer now would be putting a front door on a house whose rooms we’re still arranging. 😄

Likewise, I wouldn’t start thinking about replacing WordPress yet.

The current backend has one very useful job:

Prove that the Jaroa frontend can remain independent of its backend.

Once we’ve extracted enough value from that experiment, the native backend question becomes much more interesting.

So, my proposed next move

Let’s inspect the current frontend request lifecycle.

Not change it.

Not refactor it.

Just read the relevant files and understand exactly how Jaroa 1.0 currently works.

I would start with these:

frontend/public/index.php
frontend/app/Application.php
frontend/app/Routing/
frontend/app/Controllers/
frontend/app/Services/
frontend/app/Api/
frontend/app/View.php
frontend/config/app.php

Then we can draw the actual, not theoretical, Jaroa request lifecycle.

After that, we choose one improvement.

That feels like the right next chapter after:

Jaroa 1.0: The Foundation

and before we begin building the actual platform.