THE WARDS / RESPONSIBLE AI
Yes, you can actually build good software with AI.
Give the model a contract. Keep your judgment. An introduction to Gold Standard TDD and a more deliberate way to ship.
Calm UX & Dark Magic
Boring is
beautiful.
Software should be predictable.
The person building it is another matter...
Field notes on frontend engineering, responsible AI, and making legacy systems a little less haunted.
Read the field notesTHE RELIABILITY CONTRACT
A little less hope.
A little more proof.
// a reasonable expectation
given a real human
when they use your software
then it does what it promised
given a real human
when they use your software
then it does what it promised
Confidence, with supporting evidence.
TESTS AS CONTRACTSHUMANS ACCOUNTABLEACCESSIBILITY BUILT INVIBES OPTIONAL
01 / THE WRITING
Start with the foundations.
START HERE
TESTING
STRATEGY / GS-TDD
The hollow
test pyramid.
A passing suite is reassuring. A suite that catches meaningful failures is rather more useful. Time to inspect the foundations.
WITH GUITARS
MUSIC / TECHNICAL THERAPY
You deserve
better tests.
A musical walkthrough of Gold Standard TDD. Because apparently writing about software was not enough.
Mutation Testing: Watch Out for the WolverineLocalStorage BluesCase Study: Migrating to Monorepo in 3 Days
THE METHOD BEHIND THE MAGIC
Let the AI write.
Keep the keys.
Gold Standard TDD turns expected behaviour into a contract. Ward-Driven Development gives the agent a bounded piece of work, with explicit scope and human review.
Explore Ward-Driven Development01
Red
Define the behaviour. Watch the tests fail.
Human review: is this the right contract?
02
Gold
Build for production. Satisfy the contract.
03
Refactor
Improve the structure. Preserve the behaviour.
02 / THE TOOLKIT
Practical magic. Solid engineering.
01
Testing deep dives
Test the behaviour that matters. Then test your tests.
02CSS magic
A little visual sorcery, with performance in mind.
03Accessibility
Interfaces that work for the people using them.
04Research & methods
The reasoning behind the workflow. Bring a coffee.
05Tech songs
Software engineering has a soundtrack. Sorry.
06Quick tips
Small improvements you can put to work today.
03 / THE HUMAN
Dennis Schmock.
A reliability bias.
I build software, work with AI, and care quite a lot about what happens after the demo. Calm interfaces, useful tests, and systems that survive contact with actual people.
The metaphors occasionally get out of hand. The software should not.