Articles
Insights, tutorials, and guides on building with AI.
## When I don't build my own tool I talk a lot about building purpose-built tools. SparkDrop for...
## When I don't build my own tool I talk a lot about building purpose-built tools. SparkDrop for my content pipeline. Braindown for markdown. A custom job board when I needed to hire a video
By Brian Casel · Apr 28, 2026
How I structure agent skill folders
When I first started building agent skills, everything lived in a single SKILL.md file. That works fine for simple ones. But once a skill handles a multi-step process, a single file turns into a wall
By Brian Casel · Apr 21, 2026
Custom platforms are no longer a luxury
Custom platforms used to be a luxury. You needed a team, a budget, and months of runway just to replicate what a SaaS could give you out of the box. For most solo builders, the
By Brian Casel · Apr 17, 2026
Bake your brand into every agent skill
Most people think of agent skills as process automation. You write the steps, the agent follows them, and the work gets done faster. That's true. But the bigger payoff I keep seeing isn't speed —
By Brian Casel · Apr 15, 2026
Shape First. Then Plan.
Every major coding tool now has plan mode. Claude Code, Cursor, Codex — they've all converged on the same pattern. You describe what you want, the AI asks clarifying questions, and out pops an implementation
By Brian Casel · Apr 10, 2026
The final 10%
AI can get you 90% of the way there. The builders who thrive are the ones who invest in the up-front thinking and the final push across the finish line.
By Brian Casel · Feb 6, 2026
Claude CodeThe year our codebase became legacy
I think we'll look back on 2025 as a dividing line. Projects started before it carry the fingerprints of human hands all over them. Projects started after are largely—sometimes completely—built and architected by LLMs. That distinction matters more than you'd think.
By Brian Casel · Jan 23, 2026
Agent OSRestarts
A never go-to option becomes a no-brainer.
By Brian Casel · Oct 3, 2025
Agent OSWhat if AI prompts us?
A simple pattern that improves productivity by flipping the script.
By Brian Casel · Sep 12, 2025
MindsetWorkflow