Writing / Engineering notes

Working notes
from production.

Architecture, performance, workflow, AI tooling — what I learn shipping things and what I'd want someone to tell me before I started.

Posts

26+

Engineering write-ups

Topics

43+

Tags across the archive

Featured / Latest 4

Recent reading

  • workflow
  • remote

How I work async and remote-first: specs, workstreams, Loom over Zoom

How I run remote client engagements as a freelance developer. Written specs, workstreams, Loom over meetings, and the Rework and Remote (Basecamp) influence behind it.

— 29 May 2026

— ai

My AI dev workflow timeline — from cancelling Cursor to multi-model routing

16 May 2026

— ai

PR-level AI agents: Copilot, Claude, and Gemini in your GitHub workflow

Extending my AI coding workflow with GitHub PR agents. When to use @copilot vs @claude vs @gemini, and how they fit into a multi-layer development stack.

19 Feb 2026

— ai

Editor-level AI: completions, agents, and the Zed setup I actually use

The middle layer of AI coding tools. Inline completions, agent panels, and external agents like Claude Code running inside your editor.

19 Feb 2026

— Filter

— 26 of 26

Archive / All posts

More from the writing.

— ai

Setting Up a Persistent AI Agent on a VPS with OpenClaw

How to run OpenClaw on a DigitalOcean VPS, lock it down with Tailscale, and sync everything to Obsidian with Syncthing.

19 Feb 2026

— technical-debt

The True Cost of Technical Debt: When 'Good Enough' Becomes Expensive

That quick fix from two years ago is now costing you hours every week. Here's how technical debt accumulates and when it makes sense to pay it down.

29 Jan 2026

— lead-generation

Lead Generation Websites That Actually Convert

Most lead gen sites are slow, confusing, or ask for too much too soon. Here's what makes the difference between a site that generates leads and one that just exists.

27 Jan 2026

— business

What Business Owners Should Know Before Hiring a Web Developer

Questions to ask, red flags to watch for, and how to tell if someone actually knows what they're doing. A practical guide from the other side of the table.

25 Jan 2026

— wordpress

Why Your WordPress Site Is Losing You Money

That 6-second load time isn't just annoying - it's costing you customers. Here's what's actually wrong with most WordPress sites and how to fix it.

23 Jan 2026

— ai

How I Use Claude Code to Ship Better Code Faster

My actual workflow with AI pair programming. Custom skills, autonomous agents, and the specific ways Claude Code has changed how I work.

21 Jan 2026

— productivity

My Developer Second Brain: Obsidian and Claude Code Together

How I combine Obsidian for knowledge capture with Claude Code for automation. The note structure, AI integration, and workflows that actually stick.

21 Jan 2026

— cloudflare

How Cloudflare Blocks AI Bots From Scraping Your Content

Cloudflare now lets you block AI bots like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and others from scraping your site. Here's how it works and whether it actually matters.

3 Dec 2025

— performance

Image Optimization for Web Performance

Shipping 5MB images to production? I've been there. Learn how to optimize images properly and why it matters more than you think for web performance.

3 Dec 2024

— frontend

Component-driven development (CDD)

Stop building pages from scratch. Component-driven development changed how I build UIs - here's why it works and how to get started.

3 Nov 2024

— frontend

Frontend best practices

I've shipped features fast only to struggle understanding my own code months later. Here's what I've learned about building frontend applications you'll actually enjoy maintaining.

3 Nov 2024

— css

Modern CSS Styling Approaches

Remember having one massive styles.css file for an entire site? I don't miss that. Here's how CSS styling has changed and what I actually use now.

3 Nov 2024

— frontend

Optimizing Assets for Maximum Web Performance

The worst performance culprits? Unoptimized images, bloated JavaScript bundles, and poor asset loading. Here's what actually makes a difference.

3 Nov 2024

— css

Mental Overhead of Custom Global Classes in CSS

I've worked on projects with hundreds of custom CSS classes like .helper-12 and .util-spacing-3. Can you guess what they do? Neither could I.

3 Nov 2024

— dotfiles

The PATH Environment Variable, Dotfiles and Shell Configuration Files

I once spent two hours debugging why 'node' wouldn't run after installing it. Turns out my PATH was broken. Here's what I wish I'd known about shell configuration.

27 Aug 2024

— frontend

Mobile-First Design For Enhanced Web Performance

Most web traffic is mobile now, but I still see projects building desktop-first. Here's why that approach kills performance.

24 Aug 2024

— frontend

It's time to leave webpack behind - modern bundlers are here

I spent three days fighting a webpack config file. Here's why I switched to Vite and esbuild, and why you should consider it too.

16 Aug 2024

— frontend

Understanding axios proxy and getting it to work with nuxt.js

How to get axios to work with nuxt.js. Configure proxy settings when trying make axios requests in Nuxt.

11 Mar 2021

— frontend

Adding Images To Markdown With Nuxt Content Module

How to add images to Nuxt Content blog posts using @nuxt/image for automatic optimization and lazy loading.

1 Mar 2021

— frontend

How Page Speed & Load Time Impacts Conversions

Slow sites kill conversions. Here's what happens when users wait too long for your pages to load, and why page speed should be your top priority.

22 Dec 2020

— frontend

Website Performance Optimization Strategies To Reduce Page Loading Speed

Every site owner thinks their site is fast enough. Then users bounce after 3 seconds. Here's what actually moves the needle on performance.

20 Dec 2020

— productivity

Time Management When Working Remotely

I once spent an entire remote workday doing almost nothing productive. That's when I learned remote work requires a completely different approach to time management.

3 Nov 2019

James Donnelly, freelance developer in Manchester

The pitch

I write the code, talk to your team, and ship what we agreed. No agencies. No PMs. No surprises.

James Donnelly

Freelance developer · Manchester

Let's talkSee services