Wiring Up Windsurf - Rules, Hooks and a Harness That Thinks
How I turned an AI editor into a disciplined engineering partner
The problem with AI editors out of the box
Trainer Upgrades - Engineering the Second Iteration
Revisiting the Trainer app through a different lens
Trainer 5.0.3 - Architecture Locked In
When the interface becomes the bottleneck
The simulator was not the constraint. The surface was.
Authoring ergonomics is the real constraint
When consensus becomes the goal
Consensus often appears when no one is allowed to decide.
Consensus as a substitute for authority
Automating tagging in crankthecode for menu organisation
Effective management of the crankthecode website.
Tag to menu item organisation automation
Stellody Is Now Quietly Harder to Break
Quiet changes were made so nothing exciting ever happens again and that is the goal.
How Stellody Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore the Internet
Escaping the Cursed Realm of GoDaddy Hosting
Nothing screams freedom like deleting the last line of PHP from your life.
Stellody: Escaping the Cursed Realm of GoDaddy Hosting
Raising Test Coverage Without Breaking Trust
Higher coverage only matters if the tests survive refactors and real use.
Stellody: Raising Test Coverage Without Breaking Trust
The Illusion of Engineering
AI can generate code but it cannot replace software engineering.
AI Tools Bad Code and the Case for Review
Refactoring Without Regret: Locking Down Lifecycle First
Before making code cleaner make sure it can stop cancel and shut down correctly every single time.
Stellody: Why Lifecycle Comes First
Concurrency, Stability and UI Polish for Stellody
Concurrency dialled up with thread safe caching UI polish and performance that respects rate limits without dragging its feet.
Speed & Stability Improvements
Rate Limits, Retry Logic and Reality Checks
Rate limits strike mid run as retry logic async persistence and filesystem stalls collide in a war for reliability.
The Elephant in the Room - Rate Limiting
HyperNova, Rails and Rethinking the Voron
Upgrading the Voron Trident with a HyperNova toolhead new rails and a precision Cartographer mod.
This post walks through my recent Voron Trident overhaul
Stellody v5.0.0 - Playlist Purgatory, Parallel Processing & Progress Bar Penance
v5.0.0 restores real playlists adds thread safe performance gains and ships with a UI that survives heavy clicking.
Stellody v5.0.0 is live and critically now generates real functional playlists again.
Refactors & Focus Fights for Stellody 4.1.3
After a major refactor and full triple platform release Stellody 4.1.3 ships with improved UI cleaner code and much less screaming.
Stellody v4.1.3 featuring a major refactor licensing fixes and improved UI across all supported platforms.
Sitemaps, Side-by-Sides and Satisfying Polish
Post-launch refinements including sitemap setup, layout alignment and enhanced polish across tooling and templates.
Another productive pass over the site focused on polish semantics and visibility.
UI Polish, CTAs and the Slow March to Done
A tour through UI tweaks, CTA wrangling and why stopping matters more than starting.
UI Polish, CTAs and Knowing When to Stop
WP Bots and RSS Weirdness Blog Update
Fixed RSS encoding and ignored WordPress sniffers. As one does.
WordPress Bots and Encoding Gremlins
Command Centre Update
Added hero and battlestation sections.
Command Centre Update
Tables, Taglines and Terminal Fakery
Search autocomplete now works, the Help button is unhelpful and every post has just enough recruiter bait.
Chaos Contained: Tables, Taglines and Terminal Fakery
Site SEO & Search Updates
Blog update with SEO
Blog formally released but this time updated with SEO optimisation!
This blog is now a THING! However it needed SEO optimisation
Why Crank?
Motivation
Why I build things the hard way: a short note on overengineering, curiosity and craft.
Everyone asks why? Nobody asks why not crank?
Hello Crank
A quick welcome to Crank The Code.