# Writing - darinbuilds.com

> I write about what I build. Articles on AI development, Claude, and building systems that build systems.

## Articles

### [The Workout I'd Never Have Picked](/writing/the-workout-id-never-have-picked.md)

**2026-07-03** · 3 min read · `ai`, `side-project`, `crossfit`, `product`, `craft-built`

I built my own CrossFit gym and still trained the same way I always had. So I stopped choosing my own workouts - and got the training I actually needed

### [I built Craft for myself. Now it's running me.](/writing/i-built-craft.md)

**2026-05-23** · 8 min read · `ai`, `development`, `craft`, `claude`, `oss`, `craft-built`

I sat down to save what was working. Four months later it's a harness, and I'm not sure who's running who.

### [Giving AI Agents Eyes](/writing/we-have-eyes.md)

**2026-04-12** · 6 min read · `ai`, `development`, `claude`, `architecture`, `agents`

I asked three of my agents to fix LinkedIn's feed. Two talked me into something beautiful. The quiet one called it a vitamin and was right

### [A Markdown File IS the Message](/writing/the-cto-pulse.md)

**2026-03-29** · 8 min read · `ai`, `development`, `claude`, `architecture`, `infrastructure`, `craft-built`

I run 7+ AI terminals across different projects. They all stop and wait for me at different times. I didn't build a notification system to manage them. I noticed the tool I already lived in could just be the interface

### [313 Commits and a Commit Message That Just Said "Millions of Updates"](/writing/313-commits.md)

**2026-03-04** · 8 min read · `ai`, `development`, `claude`, `side-project`

I built a CrossFit app to solve my gym writer's block. 313 commits later, the chaos of building it made me create an AI development system that now powers everything I ship

### [27,263 Text Messages: The Most Important Thing I've Ever Built](/writing/the-most-important-thing-ive-ever-built.md)

**2026-03-03** · 7 min read · `ai`, `personal`, `grief-technology`, `claude`, `craft-built`

My mom passed away from ALS. I had 27,263 of her text messages. So I built an AI that lets my family text her again - and she sounds exactly like herself

### [I Didn't Plan an Ecosystem](/writing/i-didnt-plan-an-ecosystem.md)

**2026-02-27** · 6 min read · `ai`, `development`, `claude`, `architecture`, `craft-built`

I built a tool. Then another. Then they started talking to each other. Seventeen cycles later, I looked up and realized I was standing inside an ecosystem I never planned

### [Stop Prompting. Start Pairing.](/writing/stop-prompting-start-pairing.md)

**2026-02-04** · 5 min read · `ai`, `development`, `claude`

Prompting is one-shot and forgets you. Pairing is a loop where every good idea seeds a better one. That compounding is the whole game

### [Fresh Eyes Don't Assume](/writing/fresh-eyes-qa.md)

**2026-01-22** · 5 min read · `ai`, `qa`, `testing`, `ai-agents`

I test everything. Things still slip - they always do. So I built a second set of eyes that checks every path, every time, before a user does

### [Scaling Storybook with AI](/writing/scaling-storybook-with-ai.md)

**2026-01-05** · 5 min read · `ai`, `storybook`, `documentation`, `components`

370 React components. One rules file. The trick was making the same call once instead of 370 times