Tech Stack 2026
The tools I'm actually using this year.
Claude Code
My primary coding environment this year. Terminal-based, agent-driven, and genuinely useful for the kind of iterative front-end and research work I do. It’s changed how I think about writing code — less about remembering syntax, more about knowing what you want.
Astro + AI Harness
The framework behind this site. Astro handles static site generation with component-level hydration — fast by default, no JavaScript shipped to the browser that doesn’t need to be there. The design system lives in Claude — components, tokens, and patterns are defined and iterated there, then built out in code. Changes deploy via GitHub, so the whole pipeline from design decision to live site stays tight and version-controlled.
Chrome with Custom Extensions
Still Chrome. The extension ecosystem is too good to leave. Running a custom set tuned for UX research and development work — the right combination makes the browser feel like a different tool entirely.
BrowserStack
Real device testing without the device collection. When something looks off on a client’s phone or an edge-case browser, BrowserStack is the fastest way to know whether it’s a real problem or a local one.
Hotjar
Analytics for basic websites without the overhead. Heatmaps and session recordings tell you more about what’s actually happening on a page than most dashboards will.
This piece is part of etc. — the off-cuts that didn’t belong on the main site.
