Matthew Lang avatar

Matthew Lang

Family guy and web developer

Building memory with my own tooling

I’ve been building a fair number of Rails applications using Claude Code recently. Here are a few things I have built in the last few weeks using agentic coding:

  1. An application to support my Jekyll blog - This application replaces the Micro.blog features that I lost when I cancelled my subscription. I can now blog with just my phone if needed.
  2. A bookmarking application - I’ve wanted this for a while, but it’s only been in the last few weeks that I’ve got round to this. It uses an algorithm to age bookmarks over time so I can keep an eye on the front page. If it falls off over time, then whatever. It beats the traditional bookmarking apps I have used in the past.
  3. A dashboard of my projects - I use a slimmed-down version of Shape Up for my projects, but the hill chart feature in Basecamp is something that I find really useful. I’ve been implementing a similar tool for my own process.
  4. An authentication portal for all of the above - This is a very recent addition, and while it’s not quite complete yet, it aims to remove the hindrance of having to remember different logins for different applications.

Agentic coding has made it much easier and quicker to iterate on personal applications. The productivity gains from this have been great, and the fact that these are just personal applications for me means I don’t need to worry too much about making the code understandable to others.

My recent adoption of SQLite3 as the database for these types of applications has made them much easier to manage and more cost-effective to run. As these applications are only for my use, I don’t need a dedicated database server; I can run the application on a server, and the SQLite database can sit in a shared folder for each application—a significant cost saver. Also, since each database is just a file, I can back up these files to another directory or copy them to my laptop as a backup.

What’s become clear from building these applications, though, is that I am trying to build some memory with these applications. The support application for my blog keeps me from losing the friction-free posting I had with Micro.blog. The bookmarking application provides an immediate picture of my recent bookmarks. The dashboard application provides context on where I am with my projects, and the authentication portal eliminates the need to remember multiple usernames and passwords. These applications not only help me on a technical level but also save me a lot of time by letting me avoid having to remember certain things.

Yes, these applications are built using agentic coding, tailored to what I need, and are most likely useless as open-source applications for others to use. Still, they work for me, and that’s enough—personal tools that fit my way of thinking, something that many SaaS applications can’t do.

I used Claude’s Cowork for the first time tonight. I have an archive of a website on my laptop, and each image and document from the website is in its own folder. I used Cowork to consolidate all the images and documents into a single folder. I can see myself using this more in the future.

Yip, you’ve heard it before, but it’s still worth putting this out there.

You don’t own shit that you put on social media platforms. You don’t own your follower counts, you don’t own your posts. Stop giving away all of your shit to data harvesters and advertisers for free in exchange for the illusion of importance that comes with likes and a follower count. Set up a website — and while you’re at it, start a mailing list, because email is basically the only means of reaching your contacts that can’t easily be taken away from you.

— Have a Fucking Website

I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for years, but other than their privacy stance, there’s not much else to keep me there.

I’ve been intrigued by the interest in Kagi in my Micro.blog timeline over the last few months. So much so that I created a free account for myself today. Loving it so far!

Enjoying a very relaxed Saturday

I love Saturdays like this. No plans, no need to go anywhere. Just going with the flow.

The Goonies Lego build is coming along nicely. Some really great finishing touches, and it’s great to have most of the movie in a single build. I’m leaving the next couple of bags for Drew to do tonight.

A LEGO pirate shipwreck set displayed on a wooden dining table, featuring a tilted brown ship hull built into gray rocky cliffs with several minifigures positioned throughout the scene, including characters on the upper deck and in a cave-like area below.

I put the finishing touches on a new learning feature in Dailymuse today. It’s a spaced-repetition feature that sends notes to you over a period you define. It’s like flash cards by email. I’ll be testing this myself for the next few weeks before I release it.

Fajitas for dinner tonight, followed by an episode of Tulsa King and an episode of Shrinking, will wrap up a much-needed relaxing Saturday.

Three hours later, and I’ve managed to deploy my first Rails application using Kamal. I’m not completely sold on it yet, but I can see the appeal. Now that I have something working and can refer to, over the next few weeks, I’ll aim to deploy a more complex Rails application.

I am having a go at deploying a Rails application with Kamal tonight. I’m at the point where I am wondering why it doesn’t work the first time as it does in the demo video on the Kamal website.

I am trying to determine other ways to measure in-app activity besides tracking email open rates for Dailymuse. Difficult to do for an email product, but I’d rather not go down the tracking-pixel road.

Jen put me on to a Japanese stationery store called Bungu, which came up in her Instagram feed. I ordered a variety of things to try out, as well as a couple of things for Drew. It arrived this morning, with the items wrapped in new cloth. Very fancy. Will write more about the contents later.

A furoshiki-style cloth wrapping in white, red, and brown with the text "bungu" printed in red, tied in a knot on a desk next to a white mechanical keyboard and smartphone.

A clear plastic bag of Japanese stationery items labelled "bungu," containing various office supplies including pens, erasers (PLUS brand), a book clip, washi tape, and other writing accessories, displayed on a light fabric surface.