Effective Context Engineering for AI Agents (17 minute read)
Context engineering focuses on optimizing the tokens within an AI model's limited context window for the best outcomes. Good context engineering means curating and maintaining the most relevant information for each inference, including system instructions, tools, data, and message history. Messages can experience "context rot" and lose focus with excessive or irrelevant information, so agents like Claude Code use compaction, note-taking, and sub-agents for better context management. |
Let's Be Specific: CSS Specificity Explained (8 minute read)
CSS specificity is an algorithm that browsers use to determine which CSS rules to apply when multiple rules target the same HTML element. The specificity is calculated using a three-column scoring system (ID-CLASS-TYPE) where ID selectors have the highest weight (1-0-0), followed by class selectors, attributes, and pseudo-classes (0-1-0), and finally type selectors and pseudo-elements (0-0-1). When comparing rules, browsers check the ID column first, then CLASS, then TYPE, and if all scores are equal, the rule that appears later in the CSS wins. |
JSON is not JSON Across Languages (8 minute read)
JSON, despite being designed as a universal data interchange format, is interpreted differently across programming languages. The main issue this causes is numeric precision. JavaScript loses precision for integers larger than 2^53-1 due to its floating-point number representation, while languages like Python and Java (when properly configured) can handle these large integers correctly. |
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Hiring only senior engineers is the worst policy in the startup industry (9 minute read)
Companies are making a mistake by exclusively hiring senior engineers, missing out on the potential of motivated and adaptable junior talent. Juniors can quickly become productive with proper mentoring and AI tools. A revised hiring process that focuses on problem-solving skills, AI proficiency, and a candidate's learning mindset would be good to hire great junior engineers in this new age. |
Codex vs Claude Code: which is the better AI coding agent? (8 minute read)
This article compares three AI coding agents - Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor - across various dimensions like features, pricing, and user experience. Codex is the author's preferred choice due to its smooth GitHub integration that catches bugs and allows for easy PR management, along with more generous usage limits. |
Frontend complexity and the HTML renaissance (8 minute read)
Frontend development has become unnecessarily complex, with developers building elaborate JavaScript component libraries to recreate basic HTML functionality that browsers already provide or are increasingly supporting natively. Simple HTML elements like `details` and `summary` can create fully functional accordions without JavaScript, while popular component libraries require hundreds of files and dependencies to achieve similar results. |
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You might not need an effect (GitHub Repo)
This ESLint plugin helps identify and eliminate unnecessary React `useEffect` hooks. It includes a recommended configuration to enable all rules as warnings and offers custom configurations. The plugin provides rules that disallow common misuses of useEffect, such as deriving state, chaining state updates, and using effects as event handlers. |
Handy (GitHub Repo)
Handy is a free and open-source, cross-platform speech-to-text app that works offline. It transcribes speech locally using Whisper or Parakeet models. Handy can be triggered by a configurable keyboard shortcut. |
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Cloudflare just got faster and more secure, powered by Rust (8 minute read)
Cloudflare has rebuilt major components of its network system using Rust programming language, replacing its 15-year-old "FL" system with "FL2". This led to a 10ms reduction in median response time and a 25% performance boost. The new system, built on Cloudflare's Oxy framework, removes memory safety issues and data races that plagued the previous Nginx/LuaJIT-based system while providing better modularity. |
Designing agentic loops (9 minute read)
Coding agents like Claude Code and Codex CLI are improving automated code production with automated error correction and experimentation. These agentic loops are when agents use tools to achieve a specific goal through iteration, and they function best with clear goals and defined tools. Running agents in "YOLO mode" can be very productive but also risky, requiring careful sandboxing. |
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Airweave (GitHub Repo)
Airweave is a tool that allows agents to search across various applications by transforming their contents into searchable knowledge bases accessible through a standardized interface. |
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