Everyday DevOps

AI

As a Senior Engineer, Here’s How I Actually Use LLMs to Program

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are shaking up how we write software, but let’s be clear: they aren’t magic wands. I hear this a lot: “Can’t I just tell the AI to build my app?” “Why not automate everything?” Here’s the truth:

Tips & Tricks

Your Docker Build Context Is Bigger Than You Think

Learn why your Docker build context might be bloated and how to fix it. This guide for TypeScript projects shows how to use .dockerignore to speed up builds, reduce image size, and protect secrets so you don't accidentally ship your entire dev environment.

Easy to use Dev Environment

The Hidden Cost of Complexity: Why Seamless Development Environments Drive Engineering Productivity

Setting up a local dev environment shouldn’t feel like defusing a bomb. Clone the repo, run one script, and you’re ready. Tools, config, services, and pre-commit checks included. No tribal knowledge required. Simple, fast onboarding that helps your team ship code quicker and with less friction.

Tips & Tricks

Make Vim Usable: A Minimal Config for Remote Editing

Editing files on a remote server with Vim doesn’t have to be painful. A minimal .vimrc can dramatically improve readability and usability—adding line numbers, syntax highlighting, and smarter defaults. In just one command, you can make Vim feel like home.

Tips & Tricks

Why Every DevOps Engineer Should Be Using tmux

Learn why every DevOps engineer should use tmux for remote work. Keep your SSH sessions running, avoid lost progress, and boost reliability with this essential tool.

Resource

Preventing Port Conflicts in Docker Compose with Dynamic Ports

Learn how to prevent port conflicts in Docker Compose by using dynamic ports instead of hardcoded ones. Improve your local development and CI workflows with this practical DevOps tip.

Easy to use Dev Environment

How to Write a Great README for Your Public GitHub Project

Learn how to write a great README for your public GitHub project. This guide covers installation, usage, development setup, publishing, and contribution best practices.

Easy to use Dev Environment

Supercharge Your Python Workflow with docker compose watch

Learn how to use docker compose watch in a Python project to automatically restart on code changes and rebuild on requirements updates. Boost your DevOps workflow with this modern Docker setup

Easy to use Dev Environment

Creating a Cleanup Script for Your TypeScript Project: A Smarter Dev Environment from Day One

Learn how to create a reliable cleanup script in your TypeScript or Next.js project using rimraf. Improve your dev environment, prevent build issues, and ensure consistent local development from day one with this DevOps-friendly guide.

Resource

Typescript for OpenAI

Getting started with an OpenAI using Typescript using yarn for package management and nvm for managing node versions. Set up the environment nvm install lts/* npm install -g strip-json-comments-cli npm install -g yarn Set up the project directory. I use ~/src/<project> mkdir <applicationname> node --version

Resource

Typescript for CommonJS

How to get started with a typescript project using yarn for package management and nvm for managing node versions. Set up the overall environment nvm install lts/* npm install -g strip-json-comments-cli npm install -g yarn Set up the project directory. I use ~/src/<project> mkdir <applicationname>

Tips & Tricks

Debugging with Codezero

One of the hardest things to do is to figure out what the problem is with a production service. Exception management tools like Sentry can help you identify where the error occurs, and centralized logging can display your logs. Still, sometimes you want to set a breakpoint and see exactly

Tips & Tricks

TFLint: Static Analysis for Terraform

Continuous integration is a key part of the CI/CD pipeline. One of the main components is static analysis, which I cover in my post Static Analysis, the First Step in any Application. If you're working with Terraform, keeping your code clean, consistent, and error-free is key to

AI

Is it vibe coding if I know what I’m doing?

Anyone can watch a YouTube video and think they can renovate their bathroom, but as someone who has tried to do it, I can tell you that it’s a lot harder than it looks. I think vibe coding is the same way. Anyone can ask Lovable or Bolt to

Tips & Tricks

Standardizing tsconfig.json

This week, I've been creating many typescript applications to test different ways of creating AI chatbots using Model Context Protocol (MCP). One thing that speeds me through this is that I have a standardized way to create a tsconfig.json so that I'm always at the

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Tips & Tricks

Setup Kubernetes Admin on Linux with Brew

My goal for the year was to transition from a Macbook Pro to an iPad Pro for most of my development tasks, which required migrating my kubernetes admin tools to function in the cloud. To accomplish this, I’m using several AWS EC2 instances running Ubuntu. Here, I will detail

DevOps

Connecting Feature Flags with DORA Metrics

Intro to DORA Metrics Measuring the success and impact of new development processes is crucial to ensuring your team is always well-equipped with tools and processes that drive growth. Any team looking to adopt feature flags in their workflow should also adopt a way to properly measure DORA metrics, specifically

DevOps

Non-boolean Feature Flags

Feature flags aren’t just booleans that turn a feature on or off based on their value. They can also be used to evaluate expressions such as the application's version, compare a value to a string, or, as this example will show, change the site's behaviour

Linux

VIM & Tmux Basics

Why? Vi (vim) is the only editor you can be guaranteed to have on a Linux machine. If you ever have to log into a server or container to see what's going on or make changes, this will be all you'll have. It will save your

Linux

Upgrading from Ubuntu 12.10 to 14.04

It seems that a few of my instances in AWS were originally set up using Ubuntu 12.10. I don't know how that happened, but anyway, now that 12.10 is no longer supported, you can't just upgrade. So the solution is to use the old.

vagrant

Vagrant machine status

If you need to get the status of a vagrant machine, you can run the following in a command window: vagrant status aws --machine-readable | awk -F"," '{if ($3 == "state") print $4;}' Will output: running if the machine is running or not_created if it

AWS

AWS SNS and SQS Example using NodeJS

Using SNS and SQS and Example using NodeJS Motivation I wanted to test out using the new aws-sdk with Amazon Web Services (AWS) SNS and SQS services.  It is now possible to subscribe queues to topics therefore creating a pub/sub style system without any system configuration work. Setup at

Linux

OpenSUSE 11.1 for Vagrant

Seems that last week I needed an openSUSE 11.1  VM to test out some chef scripts.  Vagrant Cloud which is a great place to find Vagrant VMs didn't have one, so I decided to create one. Start first by downloading and installing packer an incredible tool for

Windows

Dependency Walker

Currently working out a build system for a windows application.  Found this was helpful when trying to figure out which dlls where being used by some dlls created a long time ago. Dependency Walker (depends.exe) Home Page. Shows the dependency hierarchy of the dll or exe.