# §14 — What shape is it?

Nineteen modules, and no opinion about which you take. But the shape of the thing decides the first three, and the first three decide most of the rest.

None of these are exclusive forever. They are exclusive today, because the fastest way to never finish is to build all five.

## Where now

- It answers requests with JSON — turn to §7 (An API, with or without a UI in front of it.)
- It serves pages people look at — turn to §19 (Server-rendered HTML with React where it earns its place.)
- It runs in a terminal — turn to §88
- It stands in front of other services — turn to §64 (A proxy, TLS, certificates.)
- It talks to a model — turn to §41