I use AI quite heavily now in my day to day workflow.
It’s fairly obvious when I started using AI to code:
Why I might be suited to AI
I have 35 years experience with computers.
I’ve never been drawn to programming just for the love of it. But I do enjoy creating things.
I don’t like duplication, wasted space and bloated systems.
I think I have good “taste” (don’t we all)
All this means I’m good at communicating with my computer. And current AI loves someone who can explain what they want, and what not to do.
What I use AI for
- Knock up a script to batch change hundreds of files
- Analyse csv dumps of data
- Build internal tools (generally tui)
- Automate tasks
- Build Shopify themes & apps
- Manage linux & write scripts
- Replacement Google search
What models I use
I get basically unlimited usage for $60 a month on Composer.
I’ll use GPT 5.4 now for heavier stuff or big plans but I find myself swapping less and less. I was using Opus 4.6 for a short time and Gemini 3.1 before that.
Skills
I never liked MCP and didn’t bothered using it. But skills make much more sense. To me they are just prompt templates (or macros in another era) to quickly add info to a prompt.
I also use them as “memories” of a system setup or app architecture etc to save prevent models deep diving on a project to figure it out before doing anything.
I have a few custom skills for
- obisdian docs
- neovim setup
- custom hyprland theming
And use some “official” skills from
- shopify
- cloudflare
Opencode
Opencode is really nice to use. The UI is clean and better than anything else i’ve tried including claude, gemini, openclaw tui etc.
Small things like selecting text adds to the clipboard and Tab to switch to plan mode.
I can add my Openclaw instance as a provider, which in turn uses Cursor.
Markdown Editor
I’ve used Obsidian for years, while at the same time looking for a decent markdown editor :D
Skills made me switch my websites to Astro and use markdown for everything.
I create a note in Obsidian and then publish runs a script to organise images and push to Cloudflare pages. Notes automatically become docs & web pages.
Any work for my clients goes in as a note.
Data goes into Graphana.
I can now point an AI at a notes folder and get useful info back out.