---
title: "MCR - Food Truck & Mobile Concept Platform"
description: "Complete redesign of a WordPress site into a modern Next.js 16 + Payload CMS v3 platform for a French food truck manufacturer - 129K lines of code, 78 pages, 1,383 SEO contents, delivered in 41 days."
locale: "en"
canonical: "https://portfolio.josedacosta.info/en/achievements/moncamionresto-plateforme-food-truck"
source: "https://portfolio.josedacosta.info/en/achievements/moncamionresto-plateforme-food-truck.md"
html_source: "https://portfolio.josedacosta.info/en/achievements/moncamionresto-plateforme-food-truck"
author: "José DA COSTA"
date: "2026"
type: "achievement"
slug: "moncamionresto-plateforme-food-truck"
tags: ["Next.js 16", "TypeScript", "Payload CMS v3", "PostgreSQL", "Tailwind CSS 4", "Stripe", "Terraform", "GitHub Actions", "4 AI APIs"]
generated_at: "2026-04-23T15:47:53.987Z"
---

# MCR - Food Truck & Mobile Concept Platform

Complete redesign of a WordPress site into a modern Next.js 16 + Payload CMS v3 platform for a French food truck manufacturer - 129K lines of code, 78 pages, 1,383 SEO contents, delivered in 41 days.

**Date:** February - March 2026  
**Duration:** 41 days  
**Role:** Founder & CTO - Solo Developer  
**Technologies:** Next.js 16, TypeScript, Payload CMS v3, PostgreSQL, Tailwind CSS 4, Stripe, Terraform, GitHub Actions, 4 AI APIs

### Key Metrics

- Lines of Code: **-** - TypeScript (strict mode)
- Pages: **-** - Next.js App Router
- SEO Contents: **-** - Indexable contents
- Database Tables: **-** - Including 46 versioning

## Presentation

_Project definition and scope_

### Domain

Food-service vehicles, B2B events, custom vehicle conversions, mobile concept rentals

### Target Users

B2B: event agencies, brands, food-service professionals - B2C: entrepreneurs starting a mobile food business

- Expertise - Workshops & Skills
- Concepts - Vehicles & Containers
- Realizations - Project Portfolio
- Pre-owned - Marketplace + Stripe
- Rentals - B2B Event Fleet
- Resources - Blog, Guides, Glossary, FAQ
- Contact & Quotes - Multi-step Forms

**Content:** **Mon Camion Resto** (MCR) is the **complete redesign** of a French company's showcase website, specialized in **designing, manufacturing, and customizing food trucks, trailers, converted containers, and mobile concepts** for the food-service and events industry. The project replaces an outdated WordPress site with a modern application built on Next.js 16 and Payload CMS v3.

The company operates in a niche market at the crossroads of several sectors: vehicle bodywork and conversion, professional food-service, corporate events, and mobile concept rentals. It serves prestigious clients such as Futuroscope, Sodexo, IKEA, France TV, Elior, Charal, and Ralph Lauren, with 3 physical agencies across France (Bordeaux, Paris, Metz).

A significant part of the project involved developing **numerous custom Payload CMS extensions** - particularly tools dedicated to **AI-powered content generation** (articles, product descriptions, image creation) using 4 integrated providers (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral). This custom development work on the CMS layer proved to be one of the most technically enriching aspects of the project.

**Domain:** Domain

**Target Users:** Target Users

**Functional Scope:** Functional Scope (7 Sections)

## Objectives, Context, Stakes & Risks

_Strategic vision and constraints_

### Context

The existing WordPress site suffered from **broken navigation, poor SEO, outdated visuals**, and generic contact forms. The company was transitioning from "Mon Camion Resto" to the "MCR" acronym while managing **6 domains** (moncamionresto.com/fr, labeglaise.fr, location-foodtruck.fr, food-trucks.fr, mountain-egg.com). A database migration from WordPress (42 existing articles) was also required.

### Stake Seo

The website is the primary acquisition channel - the redesign must maintain or improve existing rankings while massively creating new content

### Stake Conversion

Quote and contact forms are the commercial backbone - every lead must be correctly routed to the right agency (Bordeaux, Paris, Metz)

### Stake Brand

The company works with clients like IKEA, France TV, and Ralph Lauren - the site must reflect this level of quality

- Completely redesign the WordPress site into a modern stack (Next.js + Payload CMS) with autonomous content management
- Multiply SEO visibility through a massive content strategy: 112 blog articles, 664 guides, 471 glossary terms
- Professionalize brand image with a cohesive design system (shadcn/ui, 59 components) and quality visuals
- Automate content generation via 4 AI APIs integration (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral)
- Structure the sales funnel with multi-step quote forms routed by agency and Stripe checkout for pre-owned vehicles
- Industrialize deployment with complete CI/CD infrastructure (GitHub Actions, OVH VPS, 3 environments)

**Objectives:** Objectives

**Context:** Context

**Stakes:** Business Stakes

**Stake Seo:** SEO Visibility

**Stake Conversion:** Lead Conversion

**Stake Brand:** Brand Image

**Risks:** Identified Risks

**Risk1 Title:** SEO Migration Risk

**Risk1 Desc:** Potential loss of search rankings during migration - mitigated by implementing redirections and preserving legacy URLs via Nginx.

**Risk2 Title:** AI Content Quality

**Risk2 Desc:** Massive volume of AI-generated content (664 guides, 471 terms) requiring human verification - a status system was implemented (not-verified, ai-verified, human-verified).

**Risk3 Title:** Infrastructure Constraints

**Risk3 Desc:** Hosting on a single OVH VPS with 3 environments, limited to 8 GB RAM for the entire stack.

**Risk4 Title:** Multi-API Complexity

**Risk4 Desc:** Integration of 4 different AI APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral) with varying billing models and rate limits.

## The Steps - What I Did

_Chronological phases and personal contributions_

- Foundations
- Content & SEO
- Infrastructure & Migration
- CI/CD & Production

**Gantt Caption:** Project timeline - 41 days from first to last commit

**Phase1 Period:** Feb 10-12

**Phase2 Period:** Feb 14-27

**Phase3 Period:** Mar 2-9

**Phase4 Period:** Mar 12-22

**Commit Stats:** 81 commits over 41 days - peak: 15 commits on March 13 (CI/CD marathon)

## Actors & Interactions

_Team, stakeholders, and collaboration dynamics_

**Team Intro:** The project was realized as a **human + AI duo**: one senior developer (José DA COSTA) assisted by AI agents (Claude Code, Gemini, ChatGPT). This model is documented through 5,328 lines of sequential prompts in the project's PROMPTS.md file.

**Team Nuance:** **Important nuance**: While AI generated ~75% of code volume (mega-commits >10K insertions = 79% of total), the **human value** represents ~70% of the project's intellectual output - all architectural decisions, technical stack choices, data modeling (15 collections, 133 tables), infrastructure design, SEO strategy, client relationship, prompt engineering, and final validation.

**Stakeholders:** External Stakeholders

**Code Volume Chart:** Code Volume Distribution (Lines Produced)

**Intellectual Value Chart:** Intellectual & Decision-Making Value

**Acceleration Factor:** Estimated acceleration factor: x3 to x4 - what would have taken 4-6 months was delivered in 41 days

## Results

_Impact for myself and for the company_

### Seo

SEO Content Distribution (1,383 Contents)

**Codebase Metrics:** Codebase Metrics

**Platform Comparison:** WordPress vs Next.js+Payload CMS

**Design System:** Design System Composition (203 Components)

**Dev Velocity:** Development Velocity (Commits per Week)

**For Me:** For Me - Skills Acquired & Reinforced

**Technical Skills:** Technical Skills

**Human Skills:** Functional & Human Skills

**For Company:** For the Company - Business Impact

**Cms Chart:** CMS Content Volume by Collection

## Project Aftermath

_What happened after delivery and current state_

**Content:** **Immediate Future**: The platform was deployed to a production environment (production.moncamionresto.com) with two additional environments (test, staging). The test environment is auto-deployed on every push to main via GitHub Actions CI/CD. The CMS admin is accessible and operational for the team.

**Medium-Term**: The site is live under a temporary subdomain while the final DNS migration from the old WordPress site is pending. The massive SEO content (1,383 items) needs progressive human verification - the verification status system (not-verified / ai-verified / human-verified) is already in place. Business-critical collections (realizations, pre-owned vehicles, rental fleet) are structured and ready to be populated with real data.

**Current State**: The platform represents a **33x increase in indexable content** compared to the original WordPress site (1,383 vs. 42 items). The infrastructure is production-ready with SSL, automated backups, CI/CD, and monitoring. The n8n automation platform is deployed for workflow automation.

## Critical Reflection

_Retrospective analysis and lessons learned_

### Would Do Differently

- **Tests from the start** - even in solo mode, testing critical API routes (contact, quotes, Stripe payment) would have secured core business functionality
- **Content strategy in batches** - rather than 664 guides at once, a batch approach with human validation between each would have guaranteed quality
- **Feature flags** - a feature flag system would have enabled progressive production deployments without risk

**Strengths:** Strengths

**Improvements:** Areas for Improvement

**Would Do Differently:** What I Would Do Differently

**Lessons:** Lasting Lessons