Field Notes
from Production
Random thoughts, occasional insights, and lessons from breaking things where the stakes were real. 42 pieces; probably a few should have been tweets.
Featured
The person logging in is not always the customer.
Login proves who is at the screen. It does not prove what they own, may manage, or can buy. Model those questions separately before the edge cases arrive.
What using Claude Code actually looks like
Using Claude Code is a loop: ask, change, check, decide. Here is what a normal session looks like, six commands worth learning first, and how to recover when it goes wrong.
Capturing email and calendar without a mailbox API
Microsoft Graph and IMAP were off the table, so I used Power Automate, OneDrive sync, and one 15-minute scheduled task to pull email and calendar into a local inbox.
Most of my AI pipeline isn't AI
By volume, most of my AI pipeline is plain Python. The model is a small, expensive part I call as little as possible. The script-first split, and why it wins.
Claude Code skills: building a workflow that runs itself
The control layer of my work system is markdown and small scripts. How a workflow combines Claude Code skills, rules, model routing, and parallel sub-agents.
The Claude Code plugins I built and run
I put the Claude Code tools I reuse across projects into one public toolshed: generators, workflow commands, anti-slop checks, search visibility, rule packs, and prompts.
My AI was smart. It just couldn't see my job.
My work context was scattered across email, meetings, documents, and notes. So I wired it into a private Obsidian vault Claude Code can read.
Your next team is three people and a pile of agents.
I expect AI-assisted teams to become smaller and organize around complete workflows. The model works only when the pod owns the outcome and runs what it builds.
Four calendar days, one person, one full redesign
A full site redesign in four calendar days, from design system to admin stack. The real question is what product teams should do with the time AI gives back.
A safe way to edit database content with AI coding tools
AI coding tools edit files. Your content lives in a database. This is the pull, diff, push workflow that connects the two without hand-writing SQL against production.
Klarna's AI U-turn isn't a failure story
Klarna reported faster support and stable satisfaction, while its CEO later admitted that cost focus reduced quality. Product leaders need to read both.
The permission tax: when growing teams ship less, not more
It took a month to build and three to four months to get permission. Team growth can slow delivery when every decision needs another approval.