Weekly notes on building with AI
What I tried this week, what worked, what didn't. One post a week, ~5-minute read each. Sent to the newsletter list every Sunday.
MCP in plain English — and what to install first
Your AI knows everything about the internet and nothing about your stack. MCP is the boring protocol that fixed that. Here's what it actually is, what it isn't, and the three servers worth installing this afternoon.
Read postHow to write AGENTS.md so AI doesn't break your repo
The first thing your AI reads is a file you may not have written yet. AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules — same idea, different name. What to put in it, what to leave out, and how to have Claude draft one without getting 400 lines of generic filler.
Read postHow to review an AI-generated PR
47 files changed, green CI, an AI-written description, and 30 seconds to approve. That's the failure mode. Here's a 12-point review checklist that catches what the AI got wrong — and how to scope the review so you'll use it.
Read postStop prompting. Start observing.
Before AI can replace any part of your week, you have to see your week clearly. The one-week audit, the four-bucket sort, and the trap of automating work that shouldn't exist at all.
Read postThe goldmine is the workflow
Most people look for AI startup ideas in the wrong place. The best products usually start by compressing a workflow people already repeat every week.
Read postYour AI tests aren't actually testing anything
AI is great at generating green CI. It's worse at generating tests that catch real bugs. Five patterns I see in the wild — and a checklist to run before you trust an AI-written test suite.
Read postBefore you ship — a pre-deploy checklist for AI-built apps
AI builders make 90% of the right decisions and 10% of the catastrophically wrong ones. The wrong ones cluster in predictable places. Here's the 24-point checklist to run through before you deploy — copy-paste version included.
Read postMost AI-built apps shouldn't be on the internet
AI builders can ship v1 in a weekend. They can also bankrupt you, leak user data, and put your API keys on display by Sunday afternoon. What actually breaks — and what to do about it.
Read postYour AI is confidently wrong
It's not the security holes that drain your wallet. It's the loops, the hallucinations, and the rewrites that fix nothing. The failures nobody puts in the demo — and what they actually cost.
Read postWelcome — what this blog is and isn't
One post a week, every Sunday. Patterns, pitfalls, and checklists for building with AI. No daily spam, no AI-generated thinkpieces, no 30-item link dumps.
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