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  Generated Spring Boot REST APIs documented automatically with Swagger/OpenAPI, enabling instant API exploration and testing

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  recipes stored in the database define project structure, dependencies, templates, and build behavior, making the system configurable

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  Build Engine accepts project configuration and selected recipes to generate a complete Spring Boot backend.

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  Forge Engine generates a complete Spring Boot project with Docker, Maven, documentation, and starter tests.

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  Central dashboard for managing projects, recipes, generation workflows, and backend configuration.

Inspiration

While developing backend applications, we realized that a large amount of time is spent on repetitive engineering tasks such as creating project structures, configuring dependencies, setting up database layers, writing boilerplate code, preparing Docker files, and creating documentation. Every new application required rebuilding the same foundation again and again.

This inspired us to build Forge Engine, a platform that automates backend project creation and allows developers to focus more on solving real problems rather than repeating setup work.

What it does

Forge Engine is a database-driven backend generation platform that creates production-ready Spring Boot applications from configurable recipes.

It automatically generates:

• Complete Spring Boot project structure
• Maven dependencies and configurations
• Database entities and layers
• Repository, service, and controller architecture
• Security and authentication setup
• Docker configuration
• Test setup
• Project documentation

The generated applications follow consistent engineering practices, reducing development time and improving productivity.

How we built it

Forge Engine was built using:

• Java
• Spring Boot
• Spring Data JPA
• MySQL
• Maven
• Docker
• Database-driven recipe architecture

The system stores generation rules and templates in a structured database. Based on selected recipes, the engine processes these configurations and generates complete backend applications automatically.

The project includes automated validation, build generation, dependency management, project structure creation, and testing support.

Challenges we ran into

Building a project generator was challenging because the system had to generate not only code but also a complete working application environment.

Major challenges included:

• Designing a flexible recipe-based architecture
• Managing dynamic project structures
• Handling dependency generation correctly
• Ensuring generated applications follow best practices
• Testing generated projects automatically
• Resolving database integration and configuration issues

Through continuous testing and improvements, the core generation engine became stable and successfully passed Maven build and validation processes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a complete backend generation engine from scratch
• Created a database-driven architecture for reusable project recipes
• Successfully generated structured Spring Boot applications
• Implemented automated project validation
• Achieved successful Maven compilation, packaging, and testing
• Designed a system that can be extended with new application templates and technologies

The project is currently around 90% complete, with the remaining work focused on database stability improvements and final polishing.

What we learned

Building Forge Engine helped us understand software engineering beyond writing individual applications.

We learned about:

• Code generation systems
• Software architecture design
• Automation of development workflows
• Dependency management
• Build pipelines
• Testing strategies
• Designing scalable and maintainable developer tools

The project improved our understanding of how real engineering platforms are designed and maintained.

What's next for Forge Engine: Production-Ready Backend Generation Platform

Our next goal is to transform Forge Engine into a complete developer productivity platform.

Future improvements include:

• Adding AI-assisted requirement analysis
• Supporting more backend frameworks and languages
• Creating a web-based dashboard
• Adding one-click cloud deployment
• Integrating GitHub repository creation
• Expanding recipe libraries for different industries

Forge Engine aims to become a platform that helps developers move from ideas to production-ready applications faster and more efficiently.

Built With

• docker
• github
• java
• jpa
• maven
• mysql
• security
• springboot
• swagger