Uses
A somewhat comprehensive list of languages, tools, editors, and hardware that I use on a daily basis to build and ship backend systems.
Editors & AI tooling
- Cursor is my primary editor for day-to-day backend work. AI-assisted refactors and inline completions have genuinely sped up how fast I move through a codebase.
- Codex gets pulled in for scaffolding out API routes, writing boilerplate, and quick one-off scripts.
- Antigravity is in the rotation for more agentic, multi-step tasks where I want a tool to work through a change across several files on its own.
- Claude Code handles a lot of the heavier lifting — debugging CI/CD pipelines, working through deployment issues, and larger refactors where I want a second set of hands in the terminal.
Backend
- Node.js with Express is my go-to for building APIs — simple, unopinionated, and fast to get something running.
- For databases I mostly reach for PostgreSQL or MySQL, depending on what the project needs — relational data, migrations, and proper constraints over a document store most of the time.
- TypeScript across the backend keeps things sane as a codebase grows — catching shape mismatches before they become runtime bugs.
- On the frontend side I use Next.js when a project needs one — enough React knowledge to wire up pages and components, even if backend architecture is where I spend most of my time.
- Postman for API testing and documenting endpoints as I build them out.
- Git and GitHub Actions for version control and CI/CD — deploying to everything from managed hosts to local office machines.
Languages
- Figma is my primary tool for UI design these days. Made the switch from Sketch in 2020 and haven’t looked back. I’ve also created a few plugins that you can install.
- Any motion graphics I create are created in Adobe After Effects. So far I haven’t found a non-Adobe product that’s as good. If anyone has suggestions please message me.
- For any 3D models and video editing I use Blender. Since 2.8 it’s become way simpler to use and in a lot of ways better than expensive paid tools like 3DS Max or Maya.
Development
- I use VSCodium as my text editor, with the Tokyo Night theme and Operator Mono as my typeface of choice.
- Firefox is my main browser for both development and general use.
- React is my front end Javascript library of choice. The component-centric mental model is the first thing that truly made sense to me as a designer.
- For 3D effects and image shaders I use three.js. It has a bit of a learning curve but you can do some really powerful stuff with it.
- For CSS I’ve used a myriad pre-processors and css-in-js solutions like styled-components, but these days I’m using vanilla CSS with PostCSS to get upcoming CSS features today.
- For Javascript animations I use Framer Motion, it’s a great way to add spring animations to React and three.js.
- For building and testing UI components in isolation I use Storybook. Check out the storybook for this website.
System
| Desktop | Custom built |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Arch Linux (by the way) |
| Browser | Zen Browser |
| Monitor | 1440p IPS 144hz LG 27GL850 |
| Keyboard | Tofu65 |
| Mouse | Logitech G403 |
| Laptop | Macbook Pro 14″ |
| Headphones | Audio Technica ATH-M50x/Apple Airpods |
| Microphone | Blue Yeti |