Uses
The setup, tools, and software I use daily as a software engineer. Inspired by uses.tech.
Hardware
- MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5)
- My main machine. Insanely fast builds, all-day battery, and the best display Apple has put on a laptop.
- Dell P2419H 24"
- External display for working from home. 1080p IPS panel with slim bezels and ergonomic stand.
- AirPods (2nd gen)
- Daily TWS for calls and casual listening. Lightweight open-ear design — easy to wear all day.
- Logitech G733
- Wireless gaming headset. Comfortable for long sessions and great for calls and gaming.
Editor & Terminal
- VS Code
- My primary editor. Clean UI with a rich extension ecosystem — great for Go, debugging, and pair programming.
- iTerm2 + zsh + oh-my-zsh
- Terminal setup. Powerlevel10k theme, with zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting, and z for directory jumping.
- Neovim
- Secondary editor for quick edits and terminal-based workflows. LazyVim as the config base.
- Tmux
- Terminal multiplexer. Session management for long-running tasks and switching context between projects.
Tech Stack
- Go
- My primary language. I love its simplicity, fast compilation, and opinionated tooling (gofmt, vet, etc.).
- PostgreSQL + Redis
- My default database stack. Postgres for persistent data, Redis for caching and rate limiting.
- Kafka + Temporal
- For event-driven architecture and workflow orchestration. A powerful combination for distributed systems.
- Kubernetes + Docker
- Container orchestration. Helm for deployments, Flux for GitOps.
- ClickHouse
- OLAP database for analytics workloads. Much faster than Postgres for large aggregation queries.
- AWS
- Primary cloud provider. EC2, S3, RDS, EKS — the usual suspects.
- Nginx Ingress + Envoy
- Reverse proxy and service mesh for routing and traffic management inside Kubernetes.
- Terraform
- Infrastructure as Code. All cloud resources defined and versioned.
- GitHub Actions + Flux
- CI with GitHub Actions for building and testing, Flux for GitOps-based continuous delivery.
- VictoriaMetrics + VictoriaLogs + Victoria Alert + Prometheus + Grafana
- Full observability stack. Metrics, logs, and alerting — all self-hosted and fast.
Tools
- TablePlus
- GUI database client. Supports Postgres, MySQL, and Redis all in one. Far more pleasant than pgAdmin.
- Bruno
- Lightweight, open-source API client that stores collections in Git. A solid Postman replacement.
- Obsidian
- Note-taking and knowledge base. All my notes, RFC drafts, and learning notes live here in Markdown.
- Arc Browser
- My primary browser. Spaces for separating work and personal contexts, with a powerful command bar.
- 1Password
- Password manager. Can't live without it.
- Figma
- For architecture diagrams, flowcharts, and wireframes. More flexible than Draw.io.
AI Tools
- Claude (Anthropic) — Max
- My daily driver for brainstorming, code review, and technical writing. Best in class for long-context nuance.
- ChatGPT (OpenAI) — Plus
- For quick lookups, creative writing, and image generation. Great complement to Claude.