# From London Hackathon to Open-Source Baseline

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://deploy-preview-472--lucky-concha-f3599f.netlify.app/llms.txt).

Published: **May 2023**

TraderX did not start as a perfectly planned greenfield open-source project. The early shape came from practical prototyping work, including hackathon-style collaboration in London at BMO, where the goal was to turn an internal concept into a learning-oriented open-source base.

By May 2023, the repository began to show real structure:

*   `Initial checkin` landed core service wiring (`#13`).
*   Java build and corporate build support were improved (`#15`).
*   Both Angular and React front-end variants were added (`#17`, `#19`).
*   Trade ticket and feed workflow behavior were refined (`#20`, `#21`).
*   Messaging and "corp-friendly" structure were reworked (`#22`).

This period set a lasting theme for TraderX: keep the stack understandable, runnable, and polyglot enough to teach integration concerns without requiring enterprise-scale setup on day one.

Even at this early stage, the long-term question was already visible: how do we preserve simplicity as the project grows?

That question eventually shaped almost every architectural decision that followed.