// labs · notes
Lab Notes/recent
Short notes on what's being built, what broke, and what I figured out. Stuff that would make a blog post if I had the energy. Sometimes turns into one over at /blog.
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Astro JSX tokenizer chokes on `*/` inside template literals
Spent half a day tracking down a build error in cron-write.astro. Turns out Astro's parser treats `*/` as a block-comment closer even inside JS template literals. Fix: move multi-line prompts to .astro frontmatter (parsed as pure JS), reference as `{prompt}` variables. Reliable. Cleaner anyway.
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Why I'm using Llama 3.1 8B for almost everything
Cloudflare Workers AI gives me Llama 3.1 8B, 3.3 70B, Llava, Whisper, SDXL. All free at low scale. For prompt-driven tools the 8B is plenty if the prompt is well-written. The differentiator is the system prompt, not the model.
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The catalog is the product
When the catalog hit 50+ tools, the home page started feeling like a landing for "a tool catalog" rather than for "a builder". Moved to a featured-first landing + paginated catalog. The browse experience is now its own thing. Browsing 100 tools feels different than browsing 25.
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Cyberpunk default vs Pro skin: the toggle, not the rename
First instinct: make the pro/corporate look the default so recruiters take the site seriously. Wrong instinct. Cyberpunk IS the labs identity. Strip it and labs becomes generic. Pro skin is now a vibe-chip toggle, not the default. The pro skin is the alternate take. The original is the original.
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StubPanel beats faking a backend
For every tool without a wired-up backend, the StubPanel shows the system prompt + input example + output sample. Honest about not running yet. Surprisingly more useful than a fake demo. Visitors actually learn what the tool does. The recipe is the trailer for the meal.
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Mobile horizontal scroll is the bug nobody talks about
A 1px overflow leak on a single descendant cascades into "user has to scroll right to see the menu". Fixed by `overflow-x: clip` on both `html` and `body` across every subsite. Always check on a real phone, not just devtools. The desktop ratio lies.
Want the longer-form version? Head to /blog.