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Notes on Simplicity
Simplicity isn't the absence of complexity. It's the result of understanding a problem well enough to solve it cleanly.
A Weekend with a Side Project
No stakeholders, no deadlines, no Jira tickets. Just you and a dumb idea that might turn into something.
Designing with Constraints
Limitations aren't obstacles to creativity. They're the structure that makes creativity possible.
Small Tools, Big Impact
The best developer tools do one thing well and get out of your way. A love letter to focused software.
Learning in Public
Writing about what you're learning is the fastest way to find out what you don't actually understand.
The Case for Static
Static sites aren't a step backwards. They're what you get when you take performance and simplicity seriously.
Building for the Long Term
The frameworks will change. The databases will change. What survives is the clarity of your thinking.
Context Engineering for Production Agents: Sources, Boundaries, and Evaluation
A practical framework for giving production agents the right evidence, the right limits, and a measurable definition of done.
Your Astro API Route Can Be an MCP Server
Most MCP tutorials assume a standalone process. Here's how to expose one as just another Astro API route using Streamable HTTP — same auth, same deploy pipeline, no second app to maintain.
Talk to Your Datastar Chat: Voice Input with the Web Speech API
Extending the Datastar chat widget with the browser's native SpeechRecognition API — no new backend, no transcription service, just one more way to fill the same signal.
Run the Whole Stack Locally: Datastar + Astro + Ollama, No Cloud Bill
Take the Astro + Datastar + Vercel AI SDK stack from this series and run it entirely on your own machine with Ollama — no API key, no per-token cost, no data leaving your laptop. It's a one-import change.
Streaming Structured Output into a Datastar UI (a Card That Fills Itself In)
Stream typed, structured data from the Vercel AI SDK and watch a card build itself field by field in a Datastar UI — using streamText with output, the v6 replacement for streamObject. No React.
How to use Claude Code to QA your website
My dialer QAs itself: Claude Code logs in, dials a list of Twilio test numbers — a voicemail, an IVR, a simulated gatekeeper — records what happened vs. what should have, and files GitHub issues for another agent to fix.
Giving Your Datastar Chat Real Tools with the Vercel AI SDK v6 Agent
Turn the streaming chat widget into an agent that calls tools — and stream the tool-call status live into the conversation. Astro, Datastar, and the AI SDK v6 ToolLoopAgent, no React.
Build a Streaming AI Chat Widget with Astro, Datastar, and the Vercel AI SDK
A full multi-turn chat widget with live token streaming — where the server owns the conversation and the DOM is just the view. No React, no useChat, no client framework.
Add an AI "Summarize This Page" Button to Any Astro Site with Datastar
A small, genuinely useful build: a button that streams an AI summary of the current page into a panel, using Astro, Datastar, and the Vercel AI SDK — no React, no client framework.
Streaming LLM Responses into a Datastar UI with the Vercel AI SDK
The Vercel AI SDK's useChat only ships React, Vue, and Svelte bindings. Here's the small, reusable pattern for streaming AI tokens into a plain Datastar UI instead — no framework required
Building AI Apps with Astro, Datastar & the Vercel AI SDK (a 6-Part Series)
The Vercel AI SDK's useChat only ships React, Vue, and Svelte bindings. This six-part series builds real AI apps — chat, agents, structured output, local models — with no client framework at all, using Astro, Datastar, and one small streaming pattern
How to use VAPID web push notifications with Astro
You don't need OneSignal or Firebase to send push notifications. Web push with VAPID keys is built into every modern browser — here's the full setup in Astro: service worker, subscribe flow, SSR endpoints, and sending from the server.
Building a Streaming URL Summarizer with Astro, Datastar, and the Vercel AI SDK
How I wired up a tiny TLDR tool that takes a URL, extracts the article, and streams a Markdown summary back to the browser in real time — using Astro SSR, Datastar for reactivity, and the Vercel AI SDK for the model call.
Why I’m migrating from HTMX + Alpine to Datastar
I've been a big fan of HTMX + Alpine for a long time, the combination just lets you create powerful reactive web apps, but recently I've made the decision to move from HTMX + Alpine to Datastar for various reasons and the result means a better experience for users.