9 min read
Loading Skeletons That Don't Lie: 5 Patterns for Honest Perceived Performance
Content-shaped skeletons cut layout shift to zero versus 0.18 CLS for spinners
The Lab · Written in the open · Tagged Development
Lab.
Working notes from the studio. The tools I build, the workflows I keep, the mistakes I paid for.
170 entries · latest 2026-09-11
9 min read
Why I Stopped Using Cursor for Production Code (And What I Use Now)
Cursor felt fast for prototypes but stalled on real production tasks
10 min read
5 Claude API Errors That Cost Me Money (And How I Trapped Them)
Retry storms turned 1 timeout into 340 duplicate calls billed in 90 seconds
10 min read
Shopify Admin API From Claude: 5 Patterns I Use Across 15 Repos
Product create via Admin API beats clicking through the dashboard every time
10 min read
Claude Files API in Production: 5 Patterns for Document Workflows
Files API replaced my 40KB inline blobs with reusable file IDs across requests
11 min read
5 Anthropic Prompt Caching Patterns That Cut My API Bill 70%
System-prompt caching alone cut repeat-call costs by half
8 min read
5 Anthropic SDK Streaming Patterns I Use in Production
Token paint with backpressure stops fast streams from crashing slow UIs
8 min read
5 MCP Servers I Built This Year and What They Replaced
Built 5 MCP servers in 2026, retired 4 daemons and a Zapier flow
8 min read
5 CSS Animations That Needed JavaScript Until 2026
interpolate-size and calc-size finally let a panel transition to height auto with no measuring script.
8 min read
CSS Carousels With Zero JavaScript: 5 Patterns
A scroll-snap track plus the new pseudo-elements replaced a 14KB carousel dependency in my UI.
11 min read
CSS Scroll-Driven Animations: 6 Patterns I Ship in 2026
CSS scroll-driven animations in 2026: 6 copy-paste patterns using animation-timeline scroll() and view(), zero JavaScript.
8 min read
I Replaced ESLint + Prettier with Biome Across 16 Repos: Setup, Wins, and 2 Gotchas
Swapped ESLint plus Prettier for Biome across 16 repos, dropping from 5 dev dependencies to 1