David Braun

dbraun.io

Consulting-focused website for David Braun. The site is built to do two things at once without pretending they are the same thing:

present credible public proof of real delivery work
show the direction of serious systems currently under active development

Live site: dbraun.io

Current positioning

This is no longer a generic portfolio site.

It is a consulting-capable systems site for workflow automation, system integration, and operational software work, with enough proof and engineering signal to remain credible to hiring managers and technical reviewers.

Current public proof and delivery work:

Current in-progress systems shaping the next proof layer:

WeatherForge
DGM

Those systems are being positioned as real in-progress builds that will become part of the broader StormIQ direction. They are intentionally not presented as finished or deployed products before the proof exists.

Current proof posture

VIFG is still the strongest public production proof.
DealerFlow remains visible as pilot work, but it is not the current flagship priority.
WeatherForge and DGM now have case-study structure in place so walkthroughs, diagrams, operational surfaces, and artifacts can be added later without redesigning the site.
StormIQ is framed honestly as the broader system direction these builds support, not as a finished flagship pretending to be more proven than it is.

Latest audit baseline

Elite Audit - 2026-04-15

Stack

Category	Technology
Framework	Next.js 16
UI	React 19
Language	TypeScript
Styling	Tailwind CSS v4
Motion	Framer Motion
Content	MDX via `next-mdx-remote`
Email	Resend
Rate limiting	Upstash Redis with in-memory fallback
Testing	Vitest, Playwright
Deployment	Vercel

Local development

Prerequisites

Node.js 20.9 or later
npm

Install and run

git clone https://github.com/DavidBraun777/davidbraun777.github.io.git
cd davidbraun777.github.io
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Environment variables

Create .env.local in the repo root:

# Email configuration (required in production)
RESEND_API_KEY=re_xxxxxxxxxxxxx

# Optional: recipient override for contact form submissions
CONTACT_EMAIL=your-email@example.com

# Optional: secondary scheduling link shown on the contact page
CAL_LINK=https://calendly.com/your-handle/intro-call

# Optional: distributed rate limiting
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL=https://your-instance.upstash.io
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN=your-token

# Optional: GA4 measurement ID override
NEXT_PUBLIC_GA_ID=G-XXXXXXXXXX

Notes:

The contact form returns a 500 if RESEND_API_KEY is missing.
If CAL_LINK is set, the contact page shows a secondary optional call link. The form remains the primary contact path.
If Upstash variables are not set, the app falls back to in-memory rate limiting.

Validation

Run the full local validation set:

npm run lint
npm test
npm run build
npx playwright test e2e/smoke.spec.ts e2e/a11y.spec.ts --project=chromium

Notes on proof and honesty

This repo intentionally separates:

what is already real and visible
what is real but still under active development
what still needs stronger artifacts before it should be treated as flagship proof

That constraint matters. The site should get more convincing over time because more real evidence gets added, not because the copy gets more aggressive.