https://isaacurman.com/blog Technical articles and tutorials on software development by Isaac Urman. en-US Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:56:46 GMT contact@isaacurman.com (Isaac Urman) contact@isaacurman.com (Isaac Urman) https://isaacurman.com/opengraph-image https://isaacurman.com/blog https://isaacurman.com/blog/an-app-that-refuses-to-guess https://isaacurman.com/blog/an-app-that-refuses-to-guess I built a financial planning tool for my own situation and then started turning it into a product. The rule that shaped it: when a required fact is missing, say so, rather than producing a confident number. Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Personal Finance Determinism Architecture TypeScript https://isaacurman.com/blog/what-launching-billing-taught-me https://isaacurman.com/blog/what-launching-billing-taught-me ResuPals went from a free client-side tool to a product with accounts, plans, and Stripe. Every hard lesson was about the gap between a payment starting and the money actually arriving. Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Stripe Next.js Cloudflare Product https://isaacurman.com/blog/taking-the-machine-fingerprint-off-agent-output https://isaacurman.com/blog/taking-the-machine-fingerprint-off-agent-output Three portable agent skills that strip the tells out of AI prose and code. Why the signal sits above the word level, why every rule carries an evidence grade, and why I refused to build it against a detector. Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI Agentic Coding Agent Skills Writing https://isaacurman.com/blog/alpha-agent-orchestrator-electra-v1 https://isaacurman.com/blog/alpha-agent-orchestrator-electra-v1 An always-on host running a Telegram-fronted agent gateway and a task orchestrator, dispatching coding agents across isolated identities. It worked well enough to show me what I actually needed instead. Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Agentic Coding Orchestration Self-Hosting Linux https://isaacurman.com/blog/measuring-a-room-and-keeping-the-disagreements https://isaacurman.com/blog/measuring-a-room-and-keeping-the-disagreements A weekend floor planner built because a sectional was arriving and I needed to know if it fit. The useful part was refusing to resolve measurements that did not agree. Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Tools Geometry TypeScript Three.js https://isaacurman.com/blog/rebuilding-ephemera-zero-knowledge https://isaacurman.com/blog/rebuilding-ephemera-zero-knowledge Ephemera v2 is a ground-up rebuild. Client-side AES-256-GCM encryption with keys the server never sees, a reveal gate that stops link previews from burning one-time secrets, real tests, and a migration path that upgraded the live database without downtime. Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Next.js TypeScript WebCrypto tRPC PostgreSQL Security Testing Encryption https://isaacurman.com/blog/building-the-throwaway-version-first https://isaacurman.com/blog/building-the-throwaway-version-first I spent a weekend building an MVP of an app I actually want to make properly, with no intention of shipping it. The point was to find out which decisions were real. Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Prototyping Architecture Product https://isaacurman.com/blog/generating-a-past-and-the-people-in-it https://isaacurman.com/blog/generating-a-past-and-the-people-in-it Procedural history written as a prefix on an existing change log, and a population that is derived on demand rather than stored. Two problems that turned out to have the same shape. Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Procedural Generation Architecture Determinism TypeScript https://isaacurman.com/blog/agentic-coding-in-production https://isaacurman.com/blog/agentic-coding-in-production How I actually use coding agents like Claude Code and Codex day to day - and why guardrails, not prompts, are what make them safe in a real codebase. Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI Agentic Coding Claude Code Developer Experience https://isaacurman.com/blog/space-time-knowledge-one-graph https://isaacurman.com/blog/space-time-knowledge-one-graph How a character creator turned into a world engine, and the three-axis model that made almost every feature after that a question of where a new entity sits rather than what new system to build. Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Architecture Data Modeling Procedural Generation TypeScript https://isaacurman.com/blog/google-maps-for-a-fantasy-world https://isaacurman.com/blog/google-maps-for-a-fantasy-world Infinite zoom from a continent down to a single room sounds like a tile pyramid. For a procedurally generated world it is a trap, and nested documents are the better answer. Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Procedural Generation Architecture SVG TypeScript https://isaacurman.com/blog/deploying-ephemera-coolify-traefik https://isaacurman.com/blog/deploying-ephemera-coolify-traefik A deep dive into deploying a Next.js application with PostgreSQL on a self-hosted Coolify instance, troubleshooting Traefik routing, health checks, and Docker networking. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Coolify Traefik Docker Next.js PostgreSQL Self-Hosting https://isaacurman.com/blog/scraping-rental-listings-to-pick-a-neighborhood https://isaacurman.com/blog/scraping-rental-listings-to-pick-a-neighborhood A weekend tool that pulled rental listings into SQLite, tracked price changes over time, and told me which listings were actually a good deal instead of just new. Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Scraping SQLite TypeScript Tools https://isaacurman.com/blog/building-resupals-privacy-first-resume-builder https://isaacurman.com/blog/building-resupals-privacy-first-resume-builder How I built a fully client-side resume and cover letter builder with friendly mascot characters, focusing on privacy, ATS compliance, and user experience. Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Next.js TypeScript Privacy UX Design https://isaacurman.com/blog/homelab-proxmox-virtualization https://isaacurman.com/blog/homelab-proxmox-virtualization How I built a production-grade virtualization platform using Proxmox VE to run multiple isolated services with VM lifecycle management and operational best practices. Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Proxmox Virtualization Homelab Linux https://isaacurman.com/blog/self-hosting-coolify-cloudflare https://isaacurman.com/blog/self-hosting-coolify-cloudflare How I deployed my portfolio and other web applications using Coolify as a self-hosted PaaS with Cloudflare for DNS and TLS. Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Self-Hosting Coolify Cloudflare DevOps https://isaacurman.com/blog/tailscale-secure-remote-access https://isaacurman.com/blog/tailscale-secure-remote-access How I use Tailscale to create a secure overlay network for remote administration without exposing management ports to the internet. Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Tailscale Security Networking Homelab https://isaacurman.com/blog/scaling-minecraft-100-players https://isaacurman.com/blog/scaling-minecraft-100-players Lessons from running community Minecraft servers at scale, including performance tuning, monetization, and operational workflows. Sun, 28 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Minecraft Game Servers Scaling Community https://isaacurman.com/blog/prometheus-grafana-monitoring https://isaacurman.com/blog/prometheus-grafana-monitoring How I built a monitoring stack with Prometheus metrics, Grafana dashboards, and Discord alerting to maintain visibility across my infrastructure. Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Prometheus Grafana Monitoring DevOps https://isaacurman.com/blog/unifi-network-segmentation https://isaacurman.com/blog/unifi-network-segmentation How I designed my home network around security boundaries and controlled ingress using Unifi networking gear. Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Networking Unifi Security Homelab https://isaacurman.com/blog/building-my-portfolio https://isaacurman.com/blog/building-my-portfolio How I designed and built a unique portfolio website with an animated black hole background using Next.js and Canvas. Mon, 15 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Next.js Design Canvas https://isaacurman.com/blog/minecraft-server-consulting https://isaacurman.com/blog/minecraft-server-consulting How I ran a freelance consulting business helping clients build, optimize, and scale their Minecraft servers. Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Freelance Minecraft Consulting Java https://isaacurman.com/blog/typescript-tips https://isaacurman.com/blog/typescript-tips Practical TypeScript patterns and techniques that will level up your code quality and developer experience. Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT TypeScript JavaScript Tips https://isaacurman.com/blog/atomic-linux-bazzite-framework16 https://isaacurman.com/blog/atomic-linux-bazzite-framework16 My experience running Bazzite, an immutable Fedora-based OS, on a Framework 16 laptop for development and systems work. Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Linux Bazzite Framework Fedora https://isaacurman.com/blog/react-performance https://isaacurman.com/blog/react-performance Practical performance optimization techniques for React applications, focused on real-world scenarios. Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT React Performance JavaScript https://isaacurman.com/achievements https://isaacurman.com/feed-secret-void-signal Achievement hunters: you found the feed secret. Noch noticed your subscription. Visit /achievements, and try /feed if you are curious. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT