6. Next Steps

Overview

Great job building your first NestJS + MongoDB API! Here are ideas to continue learning and turning this demo into something more production-ready.

Add features

Validation feedback: Customize error messages or translate them for end users.
Pagination: Update GET /tasks to accept page and pageSize (see API Standards).
Sorting & filtering: Allow sorting by updatedAt or filtering by done status.
Authentication: Add simple JWT or API key checks to understand secure endpoints.
Front-end: Build a small web or mobile app (Flutter, React) that consumes the API.

Improve reliability

Tests: Write unit tests for TasksService (use mongodb-memory-server to avoid touching real data).
Error handling: Standardize responses using the error shape documented earlier.
Logging: Add the JSON logger from Logging & Observability to capture errors.
Config validation: Implement the environment validation from Configuration & Environment.

Deployment practice

Follow the docs in CI/CD to understand how GitHub Actions trigger CircleCI and Serverless.
Try deploying your tutorial API to AWS using the same pipeline (use a separate stage such as sandbox).

Continue collaborating on GitHub

Pull the latest main after every merged PR to keep your local project current: git checkout main && git pull origin main.
When tackling any new feature, start from main, create a feature branch, and follow the same commit → push → PR → squash merge workflow you used in the tutorial.
Encourage teammates to leave review comments and document decisions in the PR description so future contributors understand the context.

Take breaks, experiment, and share your progress with mentors or classmates. The best way to learn is by building and iterating! When you feel comfortable, explore more advanced topics like background jobs, WebSockets, or GraphQL.