How-to guides
Practical articles for developers — workflows, tooling, and techniques you can use today. Each guide is organized with clear headings, context for why steps matter, and copy-paste commands where it helps.
How to Take a Screenshot on Mac
Productivity & workflows Beginner 4 min read
Use built-in keyboard shortcuts and Screenshot.app to capture the full screen, a window, or any region.
Step-by-step guide to screenshots on Mac: Command+Shift+3/4/5, selection and window capture, copy to clipboard with Control, and default save location.
Developer Productivity: Shell Aliases, Functions, and Tiny Scripts
Productivity & workflows Beginner 5 min read
Automate boring terminal work: safe aliases, parameterized functions, and one-file scripts you can commit to dotfiles.
Speed up the terminal: aliases vs functions, Git/Docker one-liners, dotfile organization, and when to reach for Make or a real task runner.
Prompt Engineering for Developers: Structure, Examples, and Guardrails
AI & LLMs Intermediate 6 min read
Write prompts that behave: roles, constraints, output formats, few-shot examples, and failure modes to test.
Improve LLM prompts: clear instructions, examples, output schemas, iteration with eval cases, and safety checks for production features.
JavaScript Debugging with Chrome DevTools (and Friends)
Frontend & debugging Intermediate 6 min read
Breakpoints, async stacks, network replay, and console tricks—fix front-end bugs faster without guesswork.
Master JS debugging: breakpoints, step-through, async stacks, fetch inspection, memory leaks basics, and pairing with Node inspect for full stack.
GitHub Actions CI for Developers: Workflows, Secrets, and Caching
DevOps & infrastructure Intermediate 6 min read
Run tests on every push: YAML structure, matrix builds, encrypted secrets, and faster pipelines with cache.
Set up GitHub Actions: build and test on push, use secrets safely, cache dependencies, and mirror patterns from Git best practices.
Python Pandas for Data Analysis: A Practical Intro
Data & machine learning Beginner 7 min read
Load CSVs, explore DataFrames, filter and group data, and export results—ideal after you have Python installed.
Learn pandas: load tabular data, filter rows, aggregate with groupby, join tables, handle NaNs, and move toward reproducible notebooks.
SQL Query Optimization for Large Tables: Indexes, Plans, and Batching
Databases & SQL Intermediate 7 min read
Speed up heavy queries: choose the right indexes, read execution plans, avoid N+1 patterns, and batch work sensibly.
Optimize SQL on big tables: indexes, EXPLAIN, join order hints, avoiding full scans, keyset pagination, and safe batch operations.
Machine Learning Pipeline Basics for Software Developers
Data & machine learning Intermediate 7 min read
From raw data to a served model: training, validation, packaging, and monitoring—framed for engineers who ship services.
Understand ML pipelines: reproducible data, training jobs, metrics, model artifacts, deployment, and production monitoring for app developers.
How to Use AI Coding Assistants Effectively: Context, Prompts, and Review
AI & LLMs Intermediate 6 min read
Get better diffs from Claude, Copilot, or Cursor—narrow files, test-driven prompts, and mandatory human review.
Use AI coding tools productively: tight context, clear prompts, tests, security review, and Git-friendly habits so generated code stays maintainable.
AI Agents for Developers: Patterns, Tools, and Safety Boundaries
AI & LLMs Intermediate 7 min read
From single-shot prompts to tool-using agents—design loops, permissions, and human oversight before you automate production work.
Build safer AI agents: tool use, planning loops, permissions, audit logs, human-in-the-loop, and avoiding runaway automation in real repos.
RAG for Developers: Retrieval-Augmented Generation Explained
AI & LLMs Intermediate 7 min read
Add documents to an LLM’s context safely: chunking, embeddings, vector search, and evaluation—without hand-waving.
Learn RAG: chunk documents, embed text, query a vector store, feed grounded context to an LLM, and avoid hallucinations with citations and evals.
nginx Reverse Proxy and TLS: Upstreams, Headers, and Let’s Encrypt
DevOps & infrastructure Advanced 8 min read
Put nginx in front of your app with proxy_pass, forward client metadata, redirect HTTP to HTTPS, and outline Certbot for free certificates.
Configure nginx reverse proxy with proxy_pass, trusted headers, HTTP to HTTPS, and a high-level Let’s Encrypt / Certbot flow for real servers.