Blog

Thoughts on AI-first development, staff engineering, and building with Claude Code

AIClaude CodeMCPSide ProjectsBunTypeScriptHome Automation

Asking Claude What's on My Driveway

I asked Claude a question this evening - 'any cars on the drive?' - and thirty seconds later it described the cars, where they were parked, and that they hadn't moved in the last ten minutes. The thing that answered wasn't a smart-home plugin or a cloud service. It was an MCP server I'd written hours earlier, bridging my home CCTV to Claude Code. Here's what I learned building it in one evening.

May 12, 20266 min read

AIClaude CodeAgentsHabit DesignSide ProjectsRaspberry Pi

My AI Agent Became My Life Coach by Accident

I spent eleven days building an ambient AI agent on a Raspberry Pi. It fused my calendar, watch, location, and phone state into one decision loop, then nudged me throughout the day. I drank more water. I moved more. I was more present. Then I killed it. Here's what worked, what failed, and what every habit app has been missing.

May 12, 20265 min read

Remote WorkDigital NomadTravelAIClaude Code

Coding From Rome: Ancient City, Modern Workflow

A month of remote work from Rome - where world-class history is a 20-minute walk from your desk, but the local cafes want you in and out. Here's how the AI-first workflow held up against API rate limits and Italian work culture.

May 4, 20265 min read

Side ProjectTravel

Building a Private GPS Tracker: Real-Time Location Tracking Without Google

I wanted to track my travels across Europe without handing my location data to Google. So I built a self-hosted GPS system that pings every 5 minutes, stores everything on my Raspberry Pi, and displays it on a private map only my devices can see.

April 12, 20266 min read

TravelAI

Coding From Lisbon: A Month of AI-First Development on the Road

28 days working remotely from Lisbon - how the AI-first manager pattern, a travel router, and a good routine made it one of my most productive months yet.

April 3, 20267 min read

Side Project

Building Wigan Weather: A Full-Stack Weather Intelligence App

A friend built a weather app for a town in Germany. I thought - why not Wigan? Here's how I built a full-stack weather intelligence app on nothing but free-tier services.

April 2, 20266 min read

AITravel

Why AI-First Development is Perfect for Digital Nomads

The manager/agent pattern is inherently async - spawn work, go live your life, come back to results. AI-first development and the nomad lifestyle are a natural fit.

April 1, 20267 min read

ProductivityTravel

The Remote Engineer's Toolkit for 2026

A practical, opinionated guide to the tools, hardware, and workflows that actually matter for remote engineering in 2026. Less than you think, better than you'd expect.

March 30, 20266 min read

AIEngineering

Why I Stopped Writing Code and Started Orchestrating AI Agents

I no longer write code directly. Instead, I manage a team of AI agents that do the implementation while I stay free to think, redirect, and make decisions in real-time.

March 28, 20267 min read

Side ProjectAI

Building Struggle Chef: When AI Looks Inside Your Fridge

I wanted to see how well AI could detect things from images. A fridge seemed like the perfect test case. The result is an app that identifies your food and suggests recipes - and roasts you if you ask it to.

March 25, 20265 min read

AIProductivity

The Claude Code Power Setup That Changed How I Build Software

I published my complete Claude Code configuration as a gist - Team Lead Mode, 18 slash commands, model routing, hooks, and more. Here's what's in it and why it matters.

March 20, 20268 min read

Side ProjectAI

Building Monitoring the Situation: A Real-Time Travel Risk Dashboard

I'm planning a nomad trip across Europe in 2026. With geopolitical tensions escalating, I built a real-time travel risk dashboard powered by a two-agent AI validation pipeline.

March 18, 20267 min read

EngineeringAI

Staff Engineering in the Age of AI: What Actually Changes

AI doesn't replace the staff engineer - it amplifies the parts of the role that matter most. Architecture, system design, mentoring, and high-leverage decision-making become even more important.

March 14, 20267 min read

EngineeringAI

11 Git Hooks That Make AI Agents Safe to Run Unsupervised

AI agents can write code fast, but speed without guardrails is dangerous. Here are the 11 hooks I use to make sure my agents never commit secrets, skip formatting, or break conventions.

March 8, 20269 min read

AIEngineering

How Two AI Instances Review Each Other's Code

I built a system where two Claude Code instances review PRs through a Slack thread, discussing trade-offs back and forth and automatically committing fixes. Here's how it works.

February 28, 20268 min read

AIEngineering

From Copilot to Conductor: My AI Development Journey

My path from basic GitHub Copilot autocomplete to full AI-first orchestration wasn't planned. It was a series of realisations about what was actually slowing me down.

February 20, 20266 min read

AIProductivity

Building Observable AI Workflows with Custom Status Lines

When AI agents do your development work in the background, you need observability. Here's how I built a custom status bar that shows me everything I need at a glance.

February 12, 20267 min read

AIProductivity

Model Routing: Why I Use Different AI Models for Different Tasks

Using the most powerful AI model for every task is like driving a lorry to the corner shop. Here's my model routing strategy and why it improves both speed and quality.

February 5, 20266 min read

AIEngineering

The Manager Pattern: Treating Your AI Like a Development Team

The most effective way to use AI for development isn't as a single assistant - it's as a team of specialists with a manager coordinating their work. Here are the patterns that make it work.

January 28, 20268 min read

AIEngineering

Practical Lessons from Six Months of AI-First Development

Six months of building software primarily through AI agents. Here's an honest account of what works, what doesn't, what surprised me, and what I'd tell teams considering the switch.

January 15, 20269 min read