Making
computers
do the work
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.
I hired a dude who voices Nike commercials to tell me when my cat litter is full
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…
Everything else
26 POSTSPutting the pit crew loop to the test
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the pit crew loop -- my name for a gauntlet loop with a third role that does…
I put my own pipeline on rails and it ate my week
My Claude subscription has a weekly usage meter, and I'd stopped checking it, because two full days of heavy agent…
220 assertions and a thumb
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…
The gauntlet loop needs a pit crew
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…
Don't give the agent your inbox, give it a mail slot – mail-muncher
I build a lot of tiny tools for tedious workflows. Population: one user, me. The reigning example is the booking…
No draft, no commit – katra, the dev log my agents have to keep
2026-08 Update: Katra is now open source: github.com/craigjmidwinter/katra. Written up from the katra entries and…
Cut a seam – what I do when the agent stops reading the manual
2026-08 Update: Katra is now open source: github.com/craigjmidwinter/katra. Written up from the katra entries and…
Chat history is where context goes to die – my agents keep a dev blog now
2026-08 Update: The little CLI in this post grew up, got renamed katra, and is now open source…
Two models have to agree before anything ships – quorum review in Ripline
I once asked a model to review a plan that the same model had written twenty minutes earlier. It had notes! Minor ones…
Inverting the harness – who runs whom, Ripline and Claude Code edition
Most days I live inside Claude Code. I type a thing, the agent reads files, runs commands, does the work, and I…
Adding bureaucracy and red tape to my agents – structured artifacts and node contracts in Ripline
I have a bad habit of kicking off multi-step agent runs and walking away. There's something great about coming back to…
Smart Home vs. Home Automation – What’s the difference?
Whether you’re researching smart bulbs or exploring the capabilities of your new voice assistant, you’ve probably…
Automatic Litterbox Notifications – Using an Home Assistant and Node Red with an external REST API
Cleaning the cat litter– it’s the job the whole household fights over. Nothing is quite as glamourous as scooping shit…
Making my dumb bed, smart – Home Assistant Bed Occupancy Sensor
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…
Smart Garbage! – Pattern for deferring service calls in Home Assistant
Garbage day is the same day every week, but somehow I haven’t developed a steady routine surrounding it. Our garbage is…
Telegram keyboard and callbacks in Home Assistant with Node-RED
Last week I made this blog post describing how to use the Telegram inline keyboard and callback functions within Home…
The simple guide to Telegram's custom inline keyboard
Note: If you'd like to see how this is implemented with Node-RED instead, check this post.
My house automatically orders pizza for me – Dominos Pizza automation using Home Assistant.
Note: If you were linked here to see my telegram keyboard/callback implementation, I've got a more complete example here
NHL goal light celebration with Home Assistant and Philips Hue
2025 Update: The Goalfeed integration is now a free addon instead of a component with a paid subscription. Everything…
Night-time reading with KoReader and Philips Hue
Just wanted to quickly post about my new night-time reading set-up since I’m pretty happy with it, so far. I hesitate…
Using Home Assistant and Philips Hue to create a full colour sunrise
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…
Quick Tip: Controlling Colour of Groups of Philips Hue Lights in Home Assistant
Just a quick little tip for anybody using Philips Hue and Home Assistant--
Philips Hue and Tasker – Use your lights as a notification for Text Messages
A couple years ago, back when I first bought my Philips Hue lights, I posted this video of me using my lights as a…
Using the Xiaomi Mi Flora and Home Assistant for Twitter enabled plants
2025 Update: The Mi Flora integration appears to be replaced by the Xiaomi BLE component. I haven't used it yet, but…
Insteon SwitchLinc 2-wire Dimmer Review
I've got an old house with old electrical, and when it comes to smart lighting, the lack of common/neutral wire is a…
True MPD Jukebox using Raspberry Pi
Since my fiancée, Jess, and I are getting hitched in a few months, we've obviously been in the midst of wedding…