Uses Tools and setup

What I work with.

The tools, stack, and workflow behind this site. I update it when something changes.

Editor & code

5
VS Code
Daily driver. JetBrains keymap, no theme overrides.
Cursor
For local iteration on a tight loop.
Claude Code
For changes across multiple files.
iTerm2 + zsh
Tabbed sessions, per-project profiles.
GitHub Desktop
For diffs and quick commits. Branching and rebasing in CLI.

Design

3
Figma
Design and component systems.
Claude Design
For early visual exploration; the result goes back into code.
iA Writer
Writing-first for long-form content and case study drafts.

Stack

7
TypeScript
Default for everything I author from scratch.
Astro
This site. Static-first, content collections, MDX, view transitions.
React + React Native (Expo)
VINly and ChatOBD2 mobile + web surfaces.
ASP.NET MVC + Razor
MagTek platform. Full-stack C#/ASP.NET MVC and Razor; partial library past 100 typed components.
Hand-written CSS
Tokens, layout primitives. No utility-class framework on this site.
Tailwind
On projects where the team is already on it.
Supabase
Database, auth, edge functions for VINly and ChatOBD2.

AI workflow

4
Prompt modules in source
Typed, versioned, reviewed in PRs like any other code.
Schema-bound outputs
The output schema is validated before it reaches the UI.
Deterministic layers in front
Six reasoning layers before every model call in ChatOBD2; in VINly a VIN is check-digit validated on-device before anything is looked up, and no model runs at all.
Token budgets as resource budgets
A 38,000-token prompt is assembled for each scan; P0 sections are always included.

Hardware

3
MacBook Pro 14"
M3 Pro, 36 GB. Daily.
Studio Display
Single screen, no second monitor. Forces tab discipline.
iPhone 15 Pro
Always nearby, mostly for VINly and ChatOBD2 field testing.

This site

6
Astro 4
Static-first, content collections for case studies, MDX.
Hand-written CSS
No CSS framework; design tokens and component styles do the work.
Anybody, Inter, Martian Mono
Loaded from Google Fonts via preconnect.
Plausible analytics
Privacy-respecting. No cookies, no fingerprinting.
Web3Forms
Static contact form, no backend required.
Cloudflare Pages
Static deploy, edge caching.