I Got Tired of Claude Code Update Errors, So I Wrote a Fix

Kept running into update errors every time Claude Code had a new release. Tried everything — uninstall, reinstall, --force, you name it. The only thing that worked consistently was manually deleting the global install and starting fresh. rm -rf ~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-code rm -f ~/.npm-global/bin/claude So

How to Build iOS & macOS Apps in VS Code (Cursor/Windsurf) with Claude Code & SweetPad

I wanted to use Cursor/VS Code with Claude Code so I could get LLM power inside my editor and build apps the way I do for Python and web stuff. But iPhone (and Mac) development requires Xcode, and Xcode doesn’t have built-in support for LLM help (yet). I’

Creating Reusable Prompts in Claude

I’ve been using Claude a lot to refine code, generate checklists, and just generally help me move faster. But I kept finding myself typing the same kinds of instructions over and over again. Eventually I thought, there’s got to be a better way to do this. Turns out,

Adding a CMS UI to Hugo with TinaCMS

I love that my personal site, ajot.me, runs on Hugo. Markdown keeps things simple, and the whole setup works well. But sometimes, I just want a UI to edit posts quickly without cracking open a text editor. I already have an email-to-post system running with Postmark and GitHub Actions.

Quick Guide: Installing and Setting Up virtualenv

Here’s how to install virtualenv and troubleshoot if it doesn’t work initially. 1. Install virtualenv Using pip Run the following command to install virtualenv: pip install virtualenv You might see a message like: Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable This means virtualenv was installed

Setting Up Powerlevel10k with Oh My Zsh

Here’s how I quickly customized my terminal to make it colorful, useful, and fun with Oh My Zsh and Powerlevel10k. Step 1: Install Oh My Zsh Run this in your terminal to install Oh My Zsh: sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/

Install Homebrew on M3 Mac (Short Guide)

So, I wanted to install Homebrew on my new M3 Mac. After some hiccups and troubleshooting, these are the final steps that worked: Step 1: Install Command Line Tools: Open Terminal, and type: xcode-select --install Follow the prompts to install the required tools. Step 2: Install Homebrew /bin/bash -c

Setting Up PaperTrail for a Flask App on DigitalOcean

I’ve been running a Flask app on DigitalOcean that processes receipts sent via email and adds them to Airtable. While DigitalOcean provides basic live logging, it’s mostly useful for real-time debugging and doesn’t store logs for later use. To get more robust log storage and analysis, I

How to Set Up a Scheduled Task in PythonAnywhere with a Virtual Environment

So, I wanted to set up a scheduled task in PythonAnywhere and make sure it used my virtual environment. This way, all the packages I installed would be available to the task. Here’s how I figured it out, broken into steps. Step 1: Set Up the Virtual Environment The

Managing Environment Variables on PythonAnywhere with python-dotenv

So, I wanted to quickly jot down how to use python-dotenv on PythonAnywhere for managing environment variables. This is one of those things that’s super handy when you’re dealing with API keys, tokens, or anything sensitive in your Python projects. Let’s break it down step by step.

How I Built a Quick Apple Shortcut to Send Emails with Resend’s API

I’ve been playing around with Apple Shortcuts for a while now, setting up little automations here and there. Sometimes, it's convenient to send the results of these shortcuts as an email—maybe to log a reminder, share a link, or just send a quick update. So, I

Building a Simple Alfred Workflow to Show What’s Playing on Spotify

I wanted a quick way to see the song playing on Spotify without switching apps. So, I built an Alfred workflow to handle it. The idea was simple: press a key, see the song info. To do this, you need Alfred's Powerpack—it’s the add-on that lets

Postmark

Setting Up Inbound Email Processing with Postmark

So, I wanted to set up inbound email processing using Postmark, where I could send an email and have my app do something with it. Here’s a quick guide on how I did it, with all the steps laid out for future me (or anyone else who's

Automation

Simple Butler Service to Automate Everyday Tasks

I've been working on something new that I'm calling Simple Butler Service. It's a backend service designed to help streamline some of my everyday tasks. The goal is to continuously expand SBS by adding more services and supporting various input and output methods, like

Quickly Toggle the "Group To-dos by Project or Area" setting in Things3 Using AppleScript and Keyboard Maestro

??Note [August 10, 2025]:?Some folks noticed the script wasn't working quite right. It turns out the Preferences window is now?window 2?instead of?window 1. Just tweak the script to use?window 2, and it'll run smoothly again. I often find myself wanting to

Generating a Seinfeld Episode with LangChain

I was tinkering with?LangChain?and OpenAI to create a new guide for a "Hello World" app. This one’s going into the collection at?https://guides.curiousmints.com Being a Seinfeld nerd, I figured it’d be fun to have it generate a fictitious episode of Seinfeld.

Setting Up Environment Variables for Python Projects

I wanted to make sure I could use my API keys across multiple Python projects without having to specify them every time. Here’s how I set it up. Step 1: Store API Keys in Environment Variables 1.1 Create a .env File First, I created a .env file in

Automation

Automating Python Project Setup with Raycast Extension

In an earlier post, I shared a shell script to quickly set up new Python projects. Now, I’ve taken it a step further by creating a Raycast extension, making it even easier to start a new Python project with just a few keystrokes (I wrote about another Raycast extension

Implement Microsoft To-Do Like "Reset My Day" Feature in Things App

I've been using the Things app for over a decade. I love its aesthetics, simplicity, and minimalism. It's the app I keep coming back to, my long-standing pal. Recently, after hearing good things, I decided to take Microsoft’s To-Do for a spin, and found one

Spotify

Display Spotify Song Info on Demand with Raycast

I recently switched to Raycast after hearing good things from friends. It's a tool that lets you control almost everything from one place. I wanted to use it to see what's playing on Spotify without shifting focus from my work. Many apps and plugins pop up

Flask

Building a Monolith App with Flask

I had several small Flask apps costing me each month, so I consolidated them into one monolithic app using Flask Blueprints. This post walks you through how I did it, making the setup modular and easy to maintain.

css

Changing the Featured Image Size in Ghost

I was working on my Ghost blog and realized that the featured images for each post were just too large. After a bit of tinkering, I found a simple solution using CSS. h/t: Nick Turner's post on how to reduce feature image size within posts Here'

Automation

Streamlining Tax Season with a Simple Email Hack

Every year, as tax season rolls around, I find myself frantically looking through emails and apps to track down tax-deductible expenses. It’s always such a mess. It's like a scavenger hunt, except the prize is just getting my taxes done. So last night, inspired by the annual

Ghost

Integrating Prism.js for Code Highlighting and Copy-to-Clipboard Functionality in Ghost

I wanted to enhance my Ghost blog's code snippets with syntax highlighting and a convenient copy-to-clipboard feature. For this, I integrated Prism.js - a lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter. Here's how I did it, broken down into the code for the site header and footer. Files

Hugo

Deploying a Hugo Website to GitHub Pages Using GitHub Actions

After setting up Ghost for my personal website, I was looking for something a bit simpler. While Ghost is an incredibly powerful platform, it felt like an overkill for my needs—especially for a personal website. I still have a soft spot for the straightforwardness of HTML and CSS, so