Vanilla JS x Node

A vanilla-JS frontend (no framework) talking to a Node/Express backend that records audit events via sdk-node and serves the bundle on the same port. Comes in single-tenant and multi-tenant variants.

Source: https://github.com/everscribe/examples/tree/main/vanilla-js-fe-with-node-be

Stack

Layer What it is
Frontend Plain HTML + ES modules + CSS, Vite for bundling, @everscribe/components-element
Backend Node 20+, Express, tsx, @everscribe/sdk-node
Domain In-memory secrets vault
Audit panel <audit-trail> custom element

Run it

git clone https://github.com/everscribe/examples
cd examples/vanilla-js-fe-with-node-be/single-tenant   # or .../multi-tenant

cp .env.example .env   # EVERSCRIBE_PROJECT_ID + EVERSCRIBE_API_KEY
npm install
cd frontend && npm install && npm run build && cd ..

npm start

Server on :3000 serves the bundle and the API.

Backend integration

Identical to the other Node variants:

import { create } from "@everscribe/sdk-node";
import * as minter from "@everscribe/sdk-node/minter";

const es = create(process.env.EVERSCRIBE_PROJECT_ID!, process.env.EVERSCRIBE_API_KEY!);
const rec = es.newRecorder({ flushInterval: 2_000 });
const m = new minter.Client(process.env.EVERSCRIBE_PROJECT_ID!, process.env.EVERSCRIBE_API_KEY!);

Recording per request:

await rec.record({
    action: "secret.reveal",
    actor: actorFor(req),
    target: { type: "secret", id: req.params.id },
    result: { status: "ok" },
});

See React + Node → Backend integration for the full mint endpoint.

Frontend integration

Plain HTML + a tiny module script:

<!doctype html>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/@everscribe/components-styles/default.css">

<main id="vault"></main>
<audit-trail token-endpoint="/api/embed-token"></audit-trail>

<script type="module">
    import "@everscribe/components-element";
    // ... vault UI code
</script>

For multi-tenant customer scoping, attach the demo auth header via onTokenExpired:

const el = document.querySelector("audit-trail");
el.onTokenExpired = async () => {
    const res = await fetch("/api/embed-token/customer", {
        credentials: "include",
        headers: { "X-Demo-Actor": currentUser.id },
    });
    return (await res.json()).token;
};

Real apps swap X-Demo-Actor for whatever auth your backend expects.

Single-Tenant vs Multi-Tenant

Single-tenant Multi-tenant
Token endpoint One — /api/embed-token Two — /api/embed-token/customer, /api/embed-token/admin
UI One vault view Tab strip: Customer view · Admin view
Seeded data One implicit tenant Acme, Initech
Audit-panel scope Whole project Customer: tenant-scoped · Admin: unscoped

What to take away

  • Smallest stack of the matrix. No framework on the frontend, single Express process on the backend.
  • The audit-trail tag is the entire embed. No wrapper component, no manual polling, no manual filter UI.
  • Same backend code as the React and Svelte variants. Frontend choice is local.

What next