Built rf-comments, a Common Lisp comment service

• Repository: RyansGhost/comment-storage-system
• Latest merge: commit a4df95d, the teaching comments
• Write-up: rf-comments: Building a Web App in Common Lisp

What was built

• The service, in the first commit: comments for many ryanfleck.ca subdomains from one server, embedded with a <div> and a <script>. Comments stay pending until their email link is clicked, sign-in is passwordless, and people can see and delete their own comments. There’s a small admin GUI for sites, themes and moderation. It runs on Hunchentoot, Spinneret and SQLite, sends email through Amazon SES with hand-written SigV4 signing, and ships as one SBCL executable in Docker, with the database on the host.
• Then nine branches, each merged with --no-ff after green CI:
  • the branching workflow, and CI that runs the tests in Docker and smoke-tests the container;
  • defpage/defaction route macros that build CSRF protection into every form route;
  • CLOS observers for admin emails and an audit log;
  • stable thread ids;
  • comment counts and stats;
  • an opt-in live REPL;
  • privacy-preserving Gravatar avatars;
  • teaching comments in every Lisp file.

Result

About 3,000 lines of Lisp and 1,150 lines of teaching comments, with 332 checks in the FiveAM suite, all passing in GitHub Actions. CI also smoke-tests the built container: its health check, the embed script, the database on the host, and that the REPL is off unless enabled. A guard script proved the comments-only branch changed no code.