Gap Analysis

Comprehensive audit of what TrickBook is missing compared to production-grade engineering standards. Based on a full scan of both the TrickList mobile app and Backend API repositories.

Summary

98+ mobile source files and 24 backend route files with zero tests, zero linting, and zero automated quality gates.

The app works and is live on the App Store, but it's running without a safety net. Any of the issues below could cause production incidents that are invisible until a user reports them (or leaves a 1-star review).

Critical Gaps

1. No Linting or Formatting

Both repos. No ESLint, no Prettier, no Biome, nothing. Code style is inconsistent, unused variables go unnoticed, and potential bugs (like accidental = in conditionals) have no automated detection.

Fix: Biome setup - single tool for both linting and formatting, 30 minutes to set up.

2. Zero Test Coverage

Both repos. Not a single test file exists across the entire project. The auth flow, API client, trick list CRUD, payment processing - all untested.

Repo	Source Files	Test Files
TrickList	98+ (.ts/.tsx)	0
Backend	24 route files, 6 middleware, 3 services	0

Fix: Testing strategy - start with the 10 highest-risk tests.

3. No Pre-commit Hooks

Both repos. Nothing prevents committing broken code, unformatted files, or files with lint errors. Bad code goes straight into git history.

Fix: Husky + lint-staged - 30 minutes to set up.

4. No Error Boundary (Mobile)

One uncaught error in any React component crashes the entire app with a white screen. No recovery, no error message, no crash report.

Fix: ErrorBoundary component - 1 hour.

5. No Error Tracking

Both repos. No Sentry, no Crashlytics, nothing. When the app crashes in production or the API throws 500s, nobody knows unless a user complains.

Fix: Sentry integration - 1 hour per repo.

6. No CI/CD Quality Gates

Both repos. No GitHub Actions, no automated checks on PRs. The mobile app is built manually via EAS CLI. The backend is deployed manually.

Fix: CI/CD pipeline - 1 hour to set up.

High Priority Gaps

7. console.log Everywhere

Repo	console.log/error Count	Files Affected
TrickList	54+	14 files
Backend	410+	44 files

Some logs include PII (emails, user IDs). In production, there's no way to filter, search, or alert on these.

Fix: Structured logging

8. Dead Dependencies (Mobile)

6 packages installed but never imported:

Package	Version	Imports Found
formik	^2.2.9	0
yup	^0.32.11	0
react-hook-form	^7.71.1	0
@hookform/resolvers	^5.2.2	0
jotai	^1.11.2	0
apisauce	^1.1.1	0

These add unnecessary bundle size and confusion. Zustand is the only state manager actually used. No form library is actually used (forms use manual useState).

Fix: Remove dead dependencies

9. No API Response Validation (Mobile)

Zod is installed but only used in 2 files. The other 11 API service files return raw response.json() with TypeScript types that provide zero runtime safety.

If the API returns unexpected data, the app crashes at the point of use (deep in a component render) instead of at the API boundary where it's catchable.

Fix: Zod schemas for API responses

10. No .env.example (Both Repos)

The Backend requires 23+ environment variables. The mobile app needs at least 3. Neither repo has a .env.example template. After a fresh clone, there's no way to know what's needed without reading every file that references process.env.

Fix: Create .env.example files

11. No Input Sanitization (Backend)

No express-mongo-sanitize or equivalent. The API is vulnerable to NoSQL injection:

// This bypasses authentication without sanitization
POST /api/auth
{ "email": "admin@test.com", "password": { "$gt": "" } }

Fix: Add express-mongo-sanitize

12. No Global Error Handler (Backend)

Each of the 24 route files handles errors independently with try/catch. There's no centralized error handler middleware. Error responses are inconsistent across endpoints.

Fix: Global error handler

Medium Priority Gaps

13. MongoDB Connection Anti-Pattern (Backend)

Every route file creates its own MongoClient.connect(). That's 24 separate database connections instead of 1 shared pool. This wastes resources and can hit MongoDB's connection limit.

Fix: Centralize to a single connection pool (documented in Security Fixes).

14. Mixed MongoDB Drivers (Backend)

Both mongodb (native driver, v4.13.0) and mongoose (ODM, v8.15.1) are installed and used. This means two connection pools, two query syntaxes, and two mental models.

Recommendation: Pick one. Since routes already use the native driver extensively, either commit to mongodb or fully migrate to Mongoose.

15. No Health Check Endpoint (Backend)

No /health or /status endpoint. Load balancers, uptime monitors, and Kubernetes probes have nothing to ping.

Fix: Health check endpoint

16. No Graceful Shutdown (Backend)

No SIGTERM/SIGINT handlers. When the server restarts (deploy, crash, scaling), active WebSocket connections are dropped immediately and in-flight database operations may be interrupted.

Fix: Graceful shutdown

17. No Docker (Backend)

No Dockerfile, no docker-compose. Deployments depend on the hosting environment having the right Node.js version and system dependencies. Not reproducible.

Fix: Dockerize the backend

18. Outdated Backend Dependencies

Package	Current	Latest	Risk
Node.js	12.6.x	20 LTS	EOL since April 2022
helmet	3.22.0	8.x	Missing security headers
joi	14.3.1	17.x	Deprecated API (Joi.validate())
jsonwebtoken	8.5.1	9.x	Known vulnerabilities
aws-sdk	2.x	3.x	Deprecated, v3 already installed alongside

19. Old AWS SDK v2 Still Installed (Backend)

Both aws-sdk (v2, deprecated) and @aws-sdk/client-s3 (v3) are in package.json. The v2 SDK is 50MB+ and deprecated. Remove it if all usage has migrated to v3.

Lower Priority

20. TypeScript Strictness (Mobile)

tsconfig.json has strict: true but is missing:

• noUncheckedIndexedAccess - forces handling undefined on array/object access
• noImplicitOverride - requires explicit override keyword
• forceConsistentCasingInFileNames - prevents import casing bugs

21. File Size (Mobile)

src/lib/api/feed.ts is 538 lines. Consider splitting into feed-posts.ts, feed-reactions.ts, feed-comments.ts.

22. Backend README

References outdated information. Needs a rewrite to match current architecture.

Implementation Priority

#	Task	Effort	Impact	Repo
1	Add Biome (lint + format)	30 min	High	Both
2	Add pre-commit hooks	30 min	High	Both
3	Add error boundary	1 hour	High	Mobile
4	Add Sentry	1 hour	High	Both
5	Write first 10 tests	Half day	High	Both
6	Add CI/CD pipeline	1 hour	High	Both
7	Remove dead dependencies	30 min	Medium	Mobile
8	Add structured logging	2 hours	Medium	Both
9	Add .env.example	15 min	Medium	Both
10	Add input sanitization	30 min	Medium	Backend
11	Add global error handler	1 hour	Medium	Backend
12	Add health check	30 min	Medium	Backend
13	Add graceful shutdown	30 min	Medium	Backend
14	Consolidate MongoDB driver	Half day	Medium	Backend
15	Add Zod API validation	1 day	Medium	Mobile
16	Dockerize backend	1 hour	Low	Backend
17	Upgrade Node.js	Half day	Low (security: High)	Backend