TypeScript is the language I write most, on the server and in the browser. I’m Hugh Grigg, a UK freelance and contract software developer, and I’ve delivered TypeScript systems for companies including Fanalysis and Freetrade, as well as publishing several open source TypeScript packages of my own.
Contact me about your TypeScript project and tell me what you need built.
What I can build for you
- A back-end service or API in TypeScript on Node.js.
- Serverless applications on AWS Lambda in TypeScript.
- A web front end in React or Next.js.
- Migration of an existing JavaScript codebase to TypeScript.
- Test suites for a codebase that currently has too few, or too many of the wrong kind.
- A complete MVP in TypeScript, end to end.
Because it’s the same language across all of that, you don’t need separate people for the API, the front end and the deployment tooling, and there’s no handover between them for your schedule to absorb.
Why I default to TypeScript
Static types are the cheapest quality measure available. They catch a whole category of mistake before the code runs, they make large changes safe to attempt, and they document the system in a way that can’t drift out of date because the compiler checks it.
The other reason is reach. The same language runs your API, your Lambda functions, your build tooling and your browser front end. On a small team — or a team of one — that means no context switching between languages, one set of tooling, and shared types between the server and the client so an API change can’t silently break the front end.
I write strict TypeScript throughout, and I treat type errors as errors rather than suggestions.
How I approach testing
I aim for tests that cover behaviour a user or stakeholder would recognise, rather than large numbers of microscopic unit tests welded to implementation details. Those tend to break whenever you change anything and catch very little in return.
That style is what keeps a project moving late on. Changes in the final weeks are the ones most likely to break something quietly, and tests at that level are what make them routine instead.
Open source TypeScript packages
Publishing packages is how I keep my own standards honest — the code is out there for anyone to read, and it has to hold up.
- @kensio/yulin — simulates AWS in-process so you can test realistic behaviour across several AWS services in fast, isolated tests.
- @kensio/smartass — assertion functions that use TypeScript assertion signatures to feed type information back to the compiler and your editor.
- @kensio/part-factory — test object factories for building realistic test data without boilerplate.
- @kensio/colophon — generates social meta images for static site posts from their own front matter.
TypeScript work I’ve delivered
- Fanalysis — joined as the second employee and Staff Software Engineer, building the product in TypeScript on AWS.
- Freetrade — Principal Software Engineer on a serverless platform written in TypeScript.
- HOA Mailers — back-end and front-end systems in TypeScript with React and Next.js, on AWS infrastructure I also delivered.
Hire a freelance TypeScript developer
Contact me about your TypeScript or JavaScript project. Tell me what you’re building and I’ll come back with a direct view on how I’d approach it.
I’m a UK-based freelance and contract developer, working mainly with TypeScript and AWS.
