automating annoying tasks, sharing tips, and embracing less frustration
I've just released version 1.0.0 of mcp-windbg . Yes, one-point-zero. The headline: your AI assistant can now debug the Windows kernel. The fine print: every tool has a new name, so bring your prompts. Both below. Kernel Debugging Three new tools, open_kd_session , run_kd_command , and close_kd_session , drive kd.exe against a live kernel target over the connections you would actually use: KDNET (…
I've just released version 0.15.0 of mcp-windbg . It has been a while since the 0.12.2 post , and three releases have landed since then. Rather than a single feature, this is a round-up of everything that has shipped: a way to break into a running session, a hook to scrub sensitive data before it ever reaches the model, and a proper documentation site to tie it all together. What's New Break into…
Remember the Cliffhanger? A while back I wrote about the joy of writing a debugger adapter for Visual Studio Code . It started with a simple wish - I just wanted a faster way to remote-debug a service running in a VM - and ended with a working proof of concept: VS Code driving WinDbg through a custom Debug Adapter Protocol implementation. But that post ended on an honest note: I have not…
Current State Before I get into the story, here is the current result: Visual Studio Code debugging a C++ application with WinDbg under the hood through my first proof of concept integration. Right now this is still an early POC, not a finished debugger experience. It proves the architecture works and that VS Code can drive WinDbg through a custom adapter, but it still needs a lot more iteration…
📺 Watch Ralph in Action: Ralph implementing its own features 🔗 Links: GitHub Repository Shoutout to Matt Pocock whose viral tweet about "Ralph Wiggum" sparked this whole thing. Why, You Ask? Because AI coding assistants have a dirty little secret: they forget. You start strong. "Refactor this auth module." The AI gets it. Code looks good. You're feeling productive. Then 15 minutes later... it…
The News: Ollama Learns a New Language Claude Code can now talk to your locally-hosted models without any extra adapters, proxies, or dark magic. "Ollama v0.14.0 and later are now compatible with the Anthropic Messages API, making it possible to use tools like Claude Code with open-source models." — Ollama Blog Cue the excitement: Finally! Unlimited coding on steroids! No more watching your token…
Welcome back to the AI Agents in .NET series. In the introduction , I built a basic conversational agent. In Part 1 , I added database persistence, embeddings, and semantic search capabilities. Today I'm breaking free from the built-in DevUI. Time to escape the developer dungeon. Don't get me wrong - DevUI is fantastic for development and debugging. Enter LibreChat - and my slightly chaotic…
What Better Way to End 2025? So here's how I'm closing out the year: playing with an NVIDIA DGX Spark. Yes, that DGX Spark - the "personal AI supercomputer" that makes my wallet cry but my inner tech nerd do a happy dance. But here's the thing - I'm already having a blast with it! LibreChat is absolutely awesome (spoiler: you'll see why below), ComfyUI is pure magic (more on that in future posts),…
Welcome back. In the first post , we set up a basic conversational agent. It worked. It responded. It was... fine. But let's be honest - an agent that can only chat is just a very expensive echo chamber. Today we're giving our agent actual knowledge. It will remember past conversations, search through its own message history, and - most importantly - decide when to use that knowledge. This is…
Welcome to a new blog series about building AI agents in .NET. Yes, you read that right - I just said .NET . Not Python. C#. Curly braces. Strong typing. With drums and trumpets. Over the coming posts, we'll explore the Microsoft Agent Framework , build actual agentic systems, and - most importantly - have some fun doing it. This first post sets the stage: why I'm doing this, what we're building,…
I've just released version 0.12.2 of mcp-windbg , bringing some significant enhancements that expand how and where you can perform crash dump analysis. What's New This release introduces two major features that address the flexibility and deployment needs many of you have been asking about. First up is support for the Prompts API , which fundamentally changes how you can interact with crash dump…
The Great Prototype Experiment Here's what nobody tells you about AI-assisted rapid prototyping: After six months and nearly 100 projects, I had to face an uncomfortable truth. Every prototype feels like success. But is it really? Why, You Ask? Picture this: Me, armed with Claude, spinning up project after project like I'm some kind of coding machine gun. A productivity suite here, a file manager…
mcp-windbg 0.10.0: Now Available on PyPI Five months after the initial release of mcp-windbg , I'm releasing version 0.10.0 with significant improvements and simplified deployment. mcp-windbg is now officially available on PyPI . Installation no longer requires cloning repositories or setting up development environments: pip install mcp-windbg This represents a significant simplification from the…
The Problem: When Your Laptop Becomes a Jet Engine Working on resource-intensive Docker projects often turns laptops into jet engines. The fans spin up, the CPU overheats, and performance degrades significantly. This is especially problematic when working with limited resources - lightweight laptops, VDI sessions, or simply wanting to preserve your hardware. Why SSH-based Docker remote contexts,…
Introduction Earlier this year, my blog post The Future of Crash Analysis: AI Meets WinDBG went viral and gained significant traction across the developer community. Among the many discussions on Hacker News and Reddit a couple of comments really stood out: "Your blog is looking awesome!" "Dude, this blog is cool. I like that Monospace font." That simple feedback stuck with me and got me thinking…
Why, You Ask? Remember when I went absolutely euphoric about vibe coding ? Well, that honeymoon phase taught me one crucial lesson: context matters, and you really need to spend time writing good prompts. At first, I was frantically scribbling prompts in my notes app like some kind of digital hoarder. Then I graduated to GitHub Copilot instruction files, adding rules like "when asked for review,…
uberAgent for Linux Has Arrived After years of Windows getting all the monitoring love, uberAgent for Linux Technology Preview 1 has arrived - and it's everything we have been waiting for. I run a multi-site setup with MikroTik Routers handling WireGuard tunnels from home to coworking space to my cloud infrastructure. Systems like sso-1 , drive-1 , and splunk-1 communicate over internal network,…
When Your Own Product Keeps You Honest You're trying to connect to your virtual desktop through Citrix Workspace, ready to access your work environment and get stuff done, when suddenly you're greeted with this delightfully cryptic message: App protection component is restricting this launch. Contact your system administrator for further assistance. Ah yes, classic. Especially when you ARE the…
Old Meets New: Bringing Crash Analysis into 2025 Let's face it - while the rest of software development has evolved at warp speed, crash dump analysis feels like it's been preserved in digital amber for decades. We've got self-driving cars and pocket-sized supercomputers, yet here we are, still pecking away at command prompts like it's the dawn of the internet. Why is debugging the only area where…
Why, You Ask? Ever had that moment when your coding flow is so perfect it feels like you and your tools are in some kind of cosmic alignment? That's vibe coding. It's when the friction between thought and implementation practically disappears. And let me tell you, with GitHub Copilot and VS Code, this isn't just a fleeting sensation-it's a consistent reality. I'm tired of writing about theoretical…
By day, I specialize in system insights and observability as part of the uberAgent team at Citrix. By night, I delve into paranoia engineering with the antispy SDK. Together with Rene Windegger , we've been developing and maintaining this project for six years, continuously releasing updates since its inception. Today, we're thrilled to introduce version 2025.1.0. What began as a weekend…
Why, You Ask? Because I thought I knew Git. Like really. Branches? Merged. Rebased. Cherry-picked. Heck, I've even force-pushed into production (don't judge me). I've danced the git stash tango more times than I care to admit, and I've rage-quit after realizing I checked out the wrong branch with uncommitted changes. But then-then-I discovered git worktree . And everything changed. The Problem…
Why, You Ask? Because you want to know which parts of your C++ code are actually being tested – not just assumed to be. Code coverage isn't about perfection, but about confidence. And with the right setup, you can easily visualize what's being tested and what's quietly collecting dust. In this guide, we'll walk through: Setting up lcov and GTest Writing effective coverage-focused tests Running the…
Why, You Ask? So, I decided to self-host an LLM. Why? Every time you use an online AI model, you're handing over your data to some company. Whether it's casual conversations, coding snippets, or business-related queries, everything you type is potentially being logged, analyzed, or even used to train future models. No thanks. Instead, I prefer to keep things local. Also, I have an RTX ADA 4000…
Why, You Ask? So, I'm running Fedora, but here's the twist - I'm using PowerShell even on Linux. Why? Because I love having a consistent shell experience, no matter where I'm working. Workstations, VMs, devcontainers or Windows - PowerShell is my go-to shell, and I want it to look and behave the same everywhere. Enter oh-my-posh , the perfect companion to give PowerShell some style and…
Why, You Ask? So, you've found yourself running Fedora and decided to install Discord, huh? Great choice - Fedora is fantastic. But then you realize Discord's tarball updates are a hassle. Every week, it's the same story: download, extract, and pray you didn't miss a step. Tedious, right? Fear not! This is where Ansible swoops in to save the day. Let's walk through a playbook that automates the…
Why, You Ask? So, you've moved to Fedora and find yourself needing PowerShell - whether it's for scripting, automation, or just that occasional .ps1 nostalgia. But here's the thing: installing PowerShell manually on one machine is annoying enough. Doing it on several workstations, VMs, devcontainers, or servers? Nope, not happening. This is where Ansible comes in. With one playbook, you can…
Why, You Ask? So, you've gone and locked yourself out of your Proxmox server, huh? Don't worry, happens. Now you're probably scrambling for a way back in before you fully comprehend that your own firewall rules have turned against you. But hey, no worries! Let's break down this rescue operation step by step. Step 1: Mount the Proxmox System First, you need to access your Proxmox filesystem. If…
Why, You Ask? Every time I needed to SSH into a server, I'd be met with the same tedious ritual: entering my key passphrase again and again. You know the drill - open the terminal, type in your command, and boom! Another reminder that you still haven't figured out how to make your SSH key work seamlessly. But why, you ask? Because apparently, I love to live dangerously on the edge of frustration.…
Why, You Ask? Every time I set up a new instance of Elasticsearch and Kibana, the repetitive steps grated on me. Updating the system, configuring repositories, installing packages... surely there's a better way? And thus, the quest for automation began. Not only to save my own time but to provide a robust foundation for others in the community facing the same tedious setup. It's time-consuming and…
Why, You Ask? Every year, like clockwork, I find myself setting up my local dev environment from scratch. And every time, it's the same old song and dance: downloading, installing, configuring. It's time-consuming and frustrating. I'm tired of it. Can It Be Easier? What if setting up a new machine, rolling it back, or tweaking it could be as simple as running a build on a server? What if I told…
Why, You Ask? We all have those annoying little tasks that pop up a few times a year. They're too rare to make fixing them a big deal but happen just enough to be really annoying. Think about setting up a new laptop, sorting out files, refactor that NULL to nullptr or those updates that take forever. It eats up time and patience. I'm tired of it. Changing Things Up I started this blog not just to…