notes
Notes on software engineering, web performance, and the things I learn while building. Every post lives on my blog.
An AI agent is just a loop - a model, a few tools, and a stop condition. Here is how I built my first one with Claude and when it is worth it.
AI made me feel 20% faster while I was actually slower. Here is the workflow change that turned generated code into real shipping speed.
Most rate-limiting tutorials lead with algorithms. The useful part - what to return when a client hits the limit and how to avoid a retry storm - comes later.
I used an AI assistant to build a file upload feature. Most of it worked. The parts that didn't reveal exactly where human judgment still can't be skipped.
A retried payment double-charged our customers at 3am. Idempotency keys fixed it, and now I add one to every write endpoint before I ship it.
The hardest part of freelancing from Nepal wasn't writing code - it was scoping, pricing, and getting paid. Here's what I'd tell my younger self.