https://midwinter.io/blog Notes on making computers do the work: AI development workflows lately, and before that, the years I wired up my house. Home Assistant, Hue, agent pipelines, and one voice actor who reads my cat's litter box. en Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-putting-the-pit-crew-loop-to-the-test https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-putting-the-pit-crew-loop-to-the-test Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the pit crew loop -- my name for a gauntlet loop with a third role that does nothing but build instruments. Coining a loop is free. Knowing whether it buys anything costs about a million tokens per arm, and that's the bill this post pays. https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-rails-ate-my-week https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-rails-ate-my-week Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT My Claude subscription has a weekly usage meter, and I'd stopped checking it, because two full days of heavy agent experiments had barely moved it. Two arms of my Rainbow Road head-to-head, roughly 1.75 million output tokens of kart racer between them, and the meter sat in single digits. Then I ran… https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-220-assertions-and-a-thumb https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-220-assertions-and-a-thumb Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT I trust a green test suite the way I trust a firm handshake, and this week that finally embarrassed me in a way I can time with a stopwatch. https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-the-gauntlet-loop-needs-a-pit-crew https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-the-gauntlet-loop-needs-a-pit-crew Mon, 03 Aug 2026 18:30:00 GMT I've been running a lot of gauntlet loops lately. If you haven't met the pattern, it's Matt Shumer's coinage-- his own write-up is the source to read, and Claude of Duty is the demonstration that made it famous: a Call of Duty-style FPS in Three.js, built from a single published prompt. The shape… https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-do-not-give-the-agent-your-inbox-mail-muncher https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-08-do-not-give-the-agent-your-inbox-mail-muncher Sat, 01 Aug 2026 20:45:00 GMT I build a lot of tiny tools for tedious workflows. Population: one user, me. The reigning example is the booking pipeline for the podcast: every invitation lives in its own little directory with a status-- prospect, invited, confirmed, scheduled, recorded-- a tracker file shows where everyone… https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-07-no-draft-no-commit-katra-the-dev-log-my-agents-have-to-keep https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-07-no-draft-no-commit-katra-the-dev-log-my-agents-have-to-keep Thu, 16 Jul 2026 21:20:00 GMT 2026-08 Update: Katra is now open source: github.com/craigjmidwinter/katra. Written up from the katra entries and drafts of the time, published in the August relaunch-- anything that happened after July 16 is marked as a dated aside, because a post about honest records shouldn't quietly backdate… https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-07-cut-a-seam-when-the-agent-stops-reading-the-manual https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-07-cut-a-seam-when-the-agent-stops-reading-the-manual Mon, 13 Jul 2026 20:50:00 GMT 2026-08 Update: Katra is now open source: github.com/craigjmidwinter/katra. Written up from the katra entries and drafts of the time, published in the August relaunch-- anything I learned after the fact is marked as a dated aside. https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-06-chat-history-is-where-context-goes-to-die-my-agents-keep-a-dev-blog-now https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-06-chat-history-is-where-context-goes-to-die-my-agents-keep-a-dev-blog-now Fri, 05 Jun 2026 21:10:00 GMT 2026-08 Update: The little CLI in this post grew up, got renamed katra, and is now open source: github.com/craigjmidwinter/katra. https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-05-two-models-have-to-agree-before-anything-ships-quorum-review-in-ripline https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-05-two-models-have-to-agree-before-anything-ships-quorum-review-in-ripline Tue, 12 May 2026 22:05:00 GMT I once asked a model to review a plan that the same model had written twenty minutes earlier. It had notes! Minor ones. Overall it found the plan thoughtful and well-structured, which, yes, of course it did-- I had essentially asked a guy to grade his own homework, and the guy is famously agreeable. https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-03-inverting-the-harness-who-runs-whom-in-ripline https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-03-inverting-the-harness-who-runs-whom-in-ripline Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:15:00 GMT Most days I live inside Claude Code. I type a thing, the agent reads files, runs commands, does the work, and I supervise like a foreman who's mostly there for moral support. In that arrangement the agent is the harness-- it's in charge of the loop, and everything else (the shell, the repo, me) is… https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-03-adding-bureaucracy-and-red-tape-to-my-agents-structured-artifacts-in-ripline https://midwinter.io/blog/2026-03-adding-bureaucracy-and-red-tape-to-my-agents-structured-artifacts-in-ripline Sun, 15 Mar 2026 21:40:00 GMT I have a bad habit of kicking off multi-step agent runs and walking away. There's something great about coming back to finished work-- and something uniquely deflating about coming back to four completed pipeline steps that all ran perfectly on top of garbage produced in step one. https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-07-smart-home-vs-home-automation-whats-the-difference https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-07-smart-home-vs-home-automation-whats-the-difference Thu, 05 Jul 2018 00:11:00 GMT Whether you’re researching smart bulbs or exploring the capabilities of your new voice assistant, you’ve probably encountered the terms Smart Home and Home Automation, and you’ve got yourself wondering, is there a difference? https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-06-i-hired-a-dude-who-voices-nike-commercials-to-tell-me-when-my-cat-litter-is-full https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-06-i-hired-a-dude-who-voices-nike-commercials-to-tell-me-when-my-cat-litter-is-full Wed, 04 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT So, recently I decided to step my game up with my audio notifications for my home automation setup. I’m in the process of slowly redoing some of my YAML automations in Node-RED, and I thought what better of a time to make some improvements. https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-06-automatic-litterbox-notifications-using-an-home-assistant-and-node-red-with-an-external-rest-api https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-06-automatic-litterbox-notifications-using-an-home-assistant-and-node-red-with-an-external-rest-api Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:03:00 GMT Cleaning the cat litter– it’s the job the whole household fights over. Nothing is quite as glamourous as scooping shit out of a box in a dark corner of the basement. https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-making-my-dumb-bed-smart-home-assistant-bed-occupancy-sensor https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-making-my-dumb-bed-smart-home-assistant-bed-occupancy-sensor Sun, 20 May 2018 23:43:00 GMT I’ll try not to be as long-winded as I usually am, but I’m pretty proud of the bed sensor I built. Here’s a video of it working in Home Assistant: https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-smart-garbage-pt-1-pattern-for-deferring-service-calls-in-home-assistant https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-smart-garbage-pt-1-pattern-for-deferring-service-calls-in-home-assistant Wed, 16 May 2018 23:27:00 GMT Garbage day is the same day every week, but somehow I haven’t developed a steady routine surrounding it. Our garbage is picked up out front, but the main way we enter and leave the house is through the back door. As a result, I’ve got a bad habit of forgetting to put out the garbage and recycling… https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-telegram-keyboard-and-callbacks-in-home-assistant-with-node-red https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-telegram-keyboard-and-callbacks-in-home-assistant-with-node-red Thu, 10 May 2018 22:56:00 GMT Last week I made this blog post describing how to use the Telegram inline keyboard and callback functions within Home Assistant. I posted the article to Reddit and a user left a comment wondering how to accomplish this within Node-RED, so I thought I’d make a quick post on how to do that. https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-the-simple-guide-to-creating-actionable-notifications-in-home-assistant-using-telegrams-custom-inline-keyboard-and-telegram_callbacks https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-05-the-simple-guide-to-creating-actionable-notifications-in-home-assistant-using-telegrams-custom-inline-keyboard-and-telegram_callbacks Fri, 04 May 2018 22:27:00 GMT Note: If you'd like to see how this is implemented with Node-RED instead, check this post. https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-11-my-house-automatically-orders-pizza-for-me-dominos-pizza-automation-using-home-assistant https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-11-my-house-automatically-orders-pizza-for-me-dominos-pizza-automation-using-home-assistant Fri, 04 May 2018 22:17:00 GMT Note: If you were linked here to see my telegram keyboard/callback implementation, I've got a more complete example here https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-02-nhl-goal-light-celebration-with-home-assistant-and-philips-hue https://midwinter.io/blog/2018-02-nhl-goal-light-celebration-with-home-assistant-and-philips-hue Sun, 11 Feb 2018 22:02:00 GMT 2025 Update: The Goalfeed integration is now a free addon instead of a component with a paid subscription. Everything else in this guide should still be relevant though. See Goalfeed Hassio Addon https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-12-my-nighttime-reading-setup-using-philips-hue-and-koreader https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-12-my-nighttime-reading-setup-using-philips-hue-and-koreader Fri, 19 Jan 2018 21:14:00 GMT Just wanted to quickly post about my new night-time reading set-up since I’m pretty happy with it, so far. I hesitate to call this a scene, because when I think of a scene in the home automation context, I think of several entities getting set to a state by a single action trigger, and by that… https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-12-using-home-assistant-and-philips-hue-to-create-a-full-colour-sunrise-alarm-clock https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-12-using-home-assistant-and-philips-hue-to-create-a-full-colour-sunrise-alarm-clock Wed, 06 Dec 2017 21:58:00 GMT This is a new automation in my set-up, but it’s one I’m pretty happy with, not only because I think it’s a pretty cool effect, but for me, it’s actually a real money-saver. https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-11-quick-tip-controlling-colour-of-groups-of-philips-hue-lights-in-home-assistant https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-11-quick-tip-controlling-colour-of-groups-of-philips-hue-lights-in-home-assistant Tue, 28 Nov 2017 22:12:00 GMT Just a quick little tip for anybody using Philips Hue and Home Assistant-- https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-11-philips-hue-and-tasker-use-your-lights-as-a-notification-for-text-messages https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-11-philips-hue-and-tasker-use-your-lights-as-a-notification-for-text-messages Sun, 19 Nov 2017 22:57:00 GMT A couple years ago, back when I first bought my Philips Hue lights, I posted this video of me using my lights as a notification for incoming text messages. https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-08-using-the-xiaomi-mi-flora-and-home-assistant-for-twitter-enabled-plants https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-08-using-the-xiaomi-mi-flora-and-home-assistant-for-twitter-enabled-plants Sun, 19 Nov 2017 21:34:00 GMT 2025 Update: The Mi Flora integration appears to be replaced by the Xiaomi BLE component. I haven't used it yet, but the same logic/process should apply https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-07-insteon-switchlinc-2-wire-dimmer-review https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-07-insteon-switchlinc-2-wire-dimmer-review Wed, 09 Aug 2017 23:10:00 GMT I've got an old house with old electrical, and when it comes to smart lighting, the lack of common/neutral wire is a bit limiting. Luckily, Insteon makes these wicked little 2-wire dimmers that work in any traditional 2-wire box. I've got 5 of these suckers in my house, and I can't say enough about… https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-07-raspberry-pi-jukebox https://midwinter.io/blog/2017-07-raspberry-pi-jukebox Wed, 09 Aug 2017 21:28:00 GMT Since my fiancée, Jess, and I are getting hitched in a few months, we've obviously been in the midst of wedding planning (prior to starting work on this game). When discussing our options for music, we thought that the money we could spend on hiring a DJ could be better spent elsewhere. Initially…