Tools — A Practical Guide
Daily Drivers
Claude Code →
AI CodingMy main coding partner. It scaffolds features, hunts down obscure TypeScript errors, and holds enough of the codebase in its head that I can think out loud instead of context-switching. I reach for it before I reach for a search engine.
Claude →
AI ChatWhere I think out loud when I'm not coding — drafts, briefs, pricing logic, hard emails. Extended thinking mode is the part I rely on most: I get to watch the reasoning before I commit to a direction.
GitHub →
DeploymentThe backbone. Every change to this site goes through a branch, a PR, and a review checklist before it ships. Issues, CI runs, and the deploy pipeline to Vercel all live here too.
Vercel →
DeploymentWhere this site actually lives. Push a branch, get a preview URL; merge to main, ship to production. Zero config for Next.js, and preview URLs are how I show work-in-progress without standing up a staging environment.
Nano Banana →
Image GenerationMy image generation tool of choice for site visuals and one-off graphics. The prompt-to-result loop is quick, and the outputs hold up at the small sizes the pixel-brutalist layout uses.
Tools by Job
This section references tools from above and below — same tools, organized by what you'd actually reach for them on. The framing is honest about which I use daily and which I just know about.
Building a web app with AI help
I use Claude Code for the heavy lifting; Cursor and v0 are the standard alternatives if you want inline tab-completion or AI-generated React starters instead.
- Claude Code — Agentic coding partner with deep codebase context. The one I reach for first.
- Cursor — VS Code with AI completion baked in. Strong for inline edits driven by tab-completion.
- v0 — Vercel's AI component generator. Goes from a prompt to a React + Tailwind starting point.
Thinking, writing, rubber-ducking
Claude is my default for drafting and reasoning out loud; ChatGPT is the obvious alternative if your workflow already lives in OpenAI's ecosystem.
- Claude — Conversational assistant with extended thinking. Good for hard problems where you want to see the reasoning.
- ChatGPT — OpenAI's chat assistant, with the largest plugin and custom-GPT ecosystem.
Generating images
I use Nano Banana for site assets; Midjourney is the higher-end option when style consistency or art direction matters more than iteration speed.
- Nano Banana — Google's image generation model. Fast iteration loop, well-suited to small site assets.
- Midjourney — High-fidelity image generation with a Discord-based workflow. Strong for art-directed visuals.
Deploying and shipping code
Vercel and GitHub are the pair I use — push to a branch, preview URL, merge, ship. They're also the conventional defaults well beyond my personal stack.
- Vercel — Push-to-deploy, preview URLs, zero config for Next.js and most modern frameworks.
- GitHub — Version control, pull requests, CI, issue tracking. The standard backbone for code collaboration.
Notes, planning, knowledge capture
I haven't fully landed on one of these — Notion is the team-friendly choice; Obsidian is the local-first option for people who want to own plain markdown files on their own machine.
- Notion — Block-based docs, wikis, and lightweight project planning. Strong for shared team workspaces.
- Obsidian — Local-first markdown notes with a deep plugin ecosystem. Suited to personal knowledge graphs.
Design and UI mockups
Figma is the industry default for layouts and design systems; v0 covers the prompt-to-React-component path when you want to skip the layout step entirely.
- Figma — Industry-standard UI design tool. The default for handing layouts and design systems between designers and developers.
- v0 — Prompt-to-component generator from Vercel. Useful for going straight from idea to working React.
Worth Knowing About
Cursor →
AI CodingVS Code with AI completion built in. Best fit for engineers who want inline tab-completion that understands the surrounding codebase, without leaving the editor.
ChatGPT →
AI ChatOpenAI's chat assistant — different ecosystem, different strengths. The plugin and custom-GPT layer makes it the natural choice when a workflow already lives inside OpenAI tooling.
Midjourney →
Image GenerationHigh-fidelity image generation with a Discord-based workflow. Strong for art-directed visuals where style consistency matters more than speed.
Figma →
DesignIndustry-standard UI design tool. The default for handing off layouts and design systems between designers and developers.
v0 →
DesignVercel's AI component generator. Useful for going from a prompt to a working React + Tailwind starting point, particularly on Next.js projects.
Notion →
WritingBlock-based docs and project planning. Best fit for teams that want a single tool for wiki, tasks, and shared notes.
Obsidian →
WritingLocal-first markdown notes with a deep plugin ecosystem. Suited to people who want their knowledge graph to live as plain files on their own machine.