Spine — initial scaffold

A minimal working Emacs web server that serves templated HTML. This is the first concrete slice of spine-spec.md, resolving the open "glue language + web framework" decision: Emacs owns the HTTP socket and serves the UI directly.

Architecture decision

Emacs end-to-end. No external web process, no emacsclient IPC for reads. The app is a single Emacs instance running simple-httpd. This keeps the build simple (one language, two packages) and is adequate for Spine's complexity level.

Packages

Package	Version	Source	Purpose
`simple-httpd`	MELPA latest	MELPA	HTTP server, `defservlet` routing
`mustache`	MELPA latest	MELPA	Mustache template rendering
`ht`	—	transitive via `mustache`	Hash table for template context

Project structure

spine/
├── spine.el              # entry point: bootstrap, server start, handlers
├── templates/
│   └── hello.mustache    # smoke-test template
├── spine-spec.md         # design brief (existing)
├── spine-mockup-a-agenda.html
├── spine-mockup-b-journal.html
└── README.md

spine.el is the sole Elisp file for now. Split later when a seam earns it.
Templates live in templates/ as .mustache files.
Mockups stay as reference artifacts; they are not served.

Package bootstrap

spine.el uses package.el (built-in). On first run it installs missing packages from MELPA; subsequent starts skip the install step.

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)
(package-initialize)
(dolist (pkg '(simple-httpd mustache))
  (unless (package-installed-p pkg)
    (package-refresh-contents)
    (package-install pkg)))

package-refresh-contents runs only when a package is missing — not on every start.

Server startup

(defvar spine-port 8080
  "Port for the Spine HTTP server.")

(defvar spine-template-dir
  (expand-file-name "templates/" (file-name-directory load-file-name))
  "Directory containing .mustache templates.")

(setq httpd-port spine-port)
(httpd-start)
(message "Spine listening on http://localhost:%d" spine-port)

Port defaults to 8080, overridable by setting spine-port before loading.
spine-template-dir resolves relative to spine.el's directory so the app works regardless of default-directory.

Template rendering

A single helper wraps Mustache rendering:

(defun spine-render (name context)
  "Render templates/NAME.mustache with CONTEXT (an ht hash table).
Returns the rendered string."
  (mustache-render
   (with-temp-buffer
     (insert-file-contents
      (expand-file-name name spine-template-dir))
     (buffer-string))
   context))

Reads the template file from disk on every request. No caching — correct and simple; add caching if profiling shows a need.
context is an ht hash table whose keys map to {{key}} placeholders.

Hello World handler

(defservlet hello text/html ()
  (insert (spine-render "hello.mustache"
            (ht ("title"   "Spine")
                ("message" "Hello from Emacs.")))))

templates/hello.mustache:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>{{title}}</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>{{message}}</h1>
</body>
</html>

Accessible at http://localhost:8080/hello.
The root / is unbound and will show simple-httpd's default directory listing — acceptable for a smoke test.

Invocation

emacs --quick --load spine.el

--quick (aliases: -Q) skips init files for a clean, repeatable start.

Acceptance

emacs --quick --load spine.el starts without errors.
Browsing http://localhost:8080/hello shows "Hello from Emacs."
Templates load relative to spine.el's directory, not default-directory.
Second invocation skips package install (packages already present).

Out of scope

Book data, Org file integration, any handler beyond /hello.
Static file serving (CSS, JS, icons).
Emacs daemon mode, process management, systemd units.
Tests — the scaffold is small enough to smoke-test manually.

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