CI checks + dependency & code quality improvements

[StefanoMarzo]

1. Deps & code quality

   • Updated dependencies.
   • Externalized helper functions for reuse and clearer boundaries.
   • Improved error handling: log unknown errors explicitly.
   • Optimized React cleanup effects and dependency arrays.
   • De-Memoized objects that were not effectively getting benefits from memoization.

2. Continuous Integration

   • Added a simple GitHub Actions workflow to run npm run lint, npm run build, and npm run coverage on PRs and pushes to main.

3. Environment consistency

   • Added .nvmrc to standardize the Node version across dev machines and CI.

4. Housekeeping

   • Bumped package version.

Why

• Improve stability and performance, surface errors earlier, and keep behavior consistent across environments.