Field Notes
Everything I have learned building software in public — Claude Code workflows, security habits, Arabic-first design, and the unglamorous parts of client work.
65 notesAI Engineering✦Design✦SEO✦Product✦Security✦Performance✦AI Security✦Engineering✦Career✦DevSecOps✦Tooling✦
65 notes
AI EngineeringOllama: Run Real Models on Your Own MachineOne command pulls a model and serves it on localhost. For prototyping, private data, and never paying per token again.
AI EngineeringTurn Your Workflow Into a Claude SkillPrompting the same instructions every session is a waste. A skill is a folder that teaches the model how you work — once — and it pays back on every project after that.
AI Engineeringllama.cpp and the Quantization You Actually NeedQ4, Q5, Q8 — the difference between a model that fits your GPU and one that does not, explained without the maths.
AI EngineeringBuilding a Subagent Team That Reviews Its Own WorkOne agent writing code is autocomplete. Several specialists who critique and correct each other is a process — and the difference shows up in the diff.
AI EngineeringvLLM: When You Outgrow One Request at a TimeContinuous batching and paged attention are why a serving stack handles fifty concurrent users on hardware that choked on five.
AI EngineeringWriting a CLAUDE.md the Model Actually FollowsMost project instruction files are wish lists. The ones that work read like a senior engineer briefing a new hire on day one — specific, ordered, and short.
AI EngineeringOpen WebUI: A Chat Front-End Your Client Can Actually UseLocal models are useless to a business until someone non-technical can talk to them. This is the missing half.
DesignYour Portfolio Is a Product, Not a GalleryA grid of screenshots tells a client what you touched. A case study tells them what you decided — and decisions are the only thing they are actually buying.
AI EngineeringWhisper: Transcription That Handles ArabicMost speech-to-text falls apart on Arabic dialects. Here is what actually works, and where it still struggles.
AI EngineeringComfyUI: Image Generation as a Pipeline, Not a Prompt BoxNodes and graphs look intimidating until you need the same result twice. Then they are the only sane option.
DesignArabic-First, Not Arabic-TranslatedFlipping a layout to RTL is twenty minutes of CSS. Making an Arabic interface feel native is a different job entirely — and users notice the gap immediately.
AI EngineeringAider: AI Pair Programming That CommitsIt edits your repo and writes the commit message. Which is either exactly what you want or a very good reason to work on a branch.
SEOOwning Your Own Name in SearchIf someone searches your name after a meeting, whatever they find becomes your reference check. Here is the exact stack I used to make sure they find me.
AI EngineeringContinue: An Open-Source Coding Assistant You ControlPoint it at a local model, a cloud model, or both. The value is choosing where your code goes.
SEOGetting Cited by AI Answer EnginesPeople ask a model about you before they open a search engine. Generative engine optimisation is mostly just being unambiguous in machine-readable ways.
AI EngineeringModel Context Protocol: Stop Writing Bespoke Tool GlueOne protocol so any assistant can talk to your database, your files, your ticketing system. Write the server once.
ProductWhen the Best Checkout Is No CheckoutI built a storefront with no payment gateway on purpose. In the right market, a well-formed WhatsApp message converts better than any card form you can design.
AI EngineeringLangChain: When the Framework Helps and When It HurtsFor a three-step chain, the raw SDK is shorter and clearer. For an agent with twelve tools and retries, it is not.