Node.js powers server-side JavaScript applications ranging from REST APIs to real-time event-driven systems. Gary uses Node.js for backend services that benefit from JavaScript’s non-blocking I/O model, particularly in scenarios involving WebSocket connections, streaming data, and high-concurrency workloads.

Microservice architecture with Node.js follows established patterns for service decomposition, inter-service communication, and deployment. Frameworks like Express and Fastify provide the routing and middleware layers, while proper error handling, logging, and health check endpoints ensure production reliability.

Node.js also serves as the bridge between frontend React applications and backend Python AI services, handling request routing, authentication, session management, and response aggregation. This intermediary role plays to Node.js’s strengths in asynchronous I/O and JSON processing.