What is realtime-orders-cdc-dashboard?

This project is a real time orders dashboard that shows database changes on screen the moment they happen, without the browser having to keep asking the server for updates. It is built with PostgreSQL, a Fastify backend, Server Sent Events, and a React front end. The core idea is called change data capture. Instead of the app polling the database over and over to check for new orders, PostgreSQL itself tracks every committed change in something called a write ahead log. A backend component reads that log directly, turns each database change into an event, and pushes it to connected browsers over a live connection. When someone creates, updates, or deletes an order, either through the dashboard or through an automatic simulator included in the project, that change flows through the database log and appears on screen right away. The README explains this choice carefully. Reading changes from the database log means the write side does not need to know who is watching, avoids wasting resources on repeated polling, and lets one central listener fan updates out to many browsers instead of each browser querying the database on its own. Server Sent Events were chosen over WebSockets because updates only need to flow from the server to the browser, and Server Sent Events work over plain HTTP with the browser's built in reconnection handling. The repository includes a PostgreSQL 18 database preconfigured for this style of change tracking, a Fastify backend with REST endpoints and a simulator for generating sample activity, and a React frontend built with Vite and Tailwind CSS showing cards, charts, and a table. Running it locally requires Docker, Docker Compose, and Node.js version 18 or newer, with clear step by step setup instructions for starting the database, seeding sample data, and running the backend and frontend separately.