Blog
Notes from building.
Case studies, architecture decisions, and short notes from the workshop floor. Three rotating layouts so the feed stays varied.
- Notes
Sommelio Is Live: iOS and Android, No Play Store Link Required
Sommelio shipped this week on iOS and Android. Here is what changed on the project cards, what got quietly dropped, and what comes next.
- ios development
- sommelio
- android
- build-in-public
- astro
- portfolio
- Notes
Software Architecture Decisions I Made Without Writing a Line of Code
One commit this week — an autopost. Here is what a genuinely quiet week looks like for a solo developer, and why sometimes that is exactly right.
- software architecture
- build-in-public
- theapparchitect
- solo-developer
- astro
- Notes
Sommelio Hits TestFlight: 95% Done and a New Project Appears
Sommelio is at 95% and live in TestFlight. This week I updated the project cards on both sites and quietly added DokuAI to the roster.
- ios development
- sommelio
- dokuai
- testflight
- build-in-public
- astro
- Notes
camera-s3-stream: Fixing a Silent Failure in My Home Security System
Two commits, one subtle liveness bug — how decoupling a heartbeat from rclone's exit code made my home camera system genuinely reliable.
- ios development
- camera-s3-stream
- docker
- security
- build-in-public
- shell
- Article
theapparchitect.com: A Week of Structured Data and SEO Surgery
Eleven commits, two sites, one broken scroll bar — a deep week of structured data, buyer-intent pages, and JSON-LD rewrites on theapparchitect.com.
- custom app development
- theapparchitect
- seo
- structured-data
- astro
- build-in-public
- Article
GEO, Structured Data, and a Security Fix: This Week's Work
Entity disambiguation, JSON-LD rewrites, and a silent-failure bug in my home camera system — a varied week across three projects.
- custom app development
- jasminelise
- seo
- geo
- macos app development
- camera-s3-stream
- Article
Agency, freelancer, or solo architect — who should build your app?
Three vendor models, three sets of incentives. Here is what each costs, what each delivers, and how to tell which one fits your project before you sign.
- vendor-selection
- pricing
- fixed-price
- decision
- Article
AutoBrew v2.5: Three Releases, 48 Hours, One Layout Bug
AutoBrew shipped v2.5.0, v2.5.1, and v2.5.2 inside 48 hours — retry backoff, disk-aware snapshots, a layout fix, and a dead-code sweep. Swift development in real time.
- swift development
- autobrew
- macos
- swiftui
- build-in-public
- homebrew
- Article
MVP or full production app — which one do you actually need?
An MVP costs a third of a full app and ships in a quarter of the time. Here is the honest answer on when it's the right move, when it isn't, and how to decide before you commit to a budget.
- mvp
- pricing
- fixed-price
- decision
- Case Study
AutoBrew v2.4: Snapshots, CLI, and a Signing Fight
AutoBrew v2.4 landed this week with pre-upgrade snapshots, a URL-scheme CLI, and a brew doctor health view — plus an Apple signing rabbit hole I did not expect.
- macos app development
- autobrew
- swift
- homebrew
- swiftui
- build-in-public
- Notes
May 2026 — what shipped
Short log of what went live this month across my own apps and the open-source tools.
- changelog
- snapshots
- dokuai
- civocloudmanager
- Article
Why I bet on Quarkus for SMB app backends
Picking the backend stack for a custom app is a 5-year decision. Here is why Quarkus on Kubernetes keeps winning over the obvious Node and Spring picks for the apps I build.
- architecture
- quarkus
- java
- backend
- Article
How much does an app cost — honest 2026 price ranges
An MVP starts around €15,000. A polished iOS + Android product with backend lands €30,000–€60,000. What that money actually buys, what moves the price, and what you should refuse to pay for.
- pricing
- mvp
- fixed-price
- app cost
- Case Study
How I built DokuAI — and why this pattern works for your business
A field-team app that turns site voice memos into structured reports. Six Quarkus microservices, one Flutter app, six weeks to a usable v1. The architecture pattern I sell.
- case-study
- custom app development
- ios development
- quarkus
- kafka
- dokuai
- Article
SnapShots — building a daily-engagement app that retains 73 % of users
A photo-recognition quiz, Flutter on the front, Quarkus on the back. The architecture pattern for any app that lives or dies by daily return visits.
- article
- custom app development
- flutter
- engagement
- snapshots
- Case Study
CivoCloudManager — building a native Civo client in public
A free, native macOS app for Civo Cloud. Built in public for the Civo community. Swift 6, SwiftUI, zero dependencies, open roadmap.
- case-study
- build-in-public
- civo
- kubernetes
- macos
- swift