How I build
I design and build tools for my own work: a system that connects Claude to Ableton Live, the software I produce music in; my artist website; and an agent that turns my notes into social media posts. All of them are built with Claude Code. I define what gets built, how it looks, how it behaves and when it's done.
I start from something real
Every part of the Ableton system came from something I needed in a real session: automating, understanding the harmony, measuring the mix. I didn't start from a feature list. If a tool doesn't solve something that has already happened to me, it doesn't get built.
In a small company that lives on public tenders I did the same. I didn't start by tidying thousands of emails, but with one task that had a deadline. Order came out of the work.
Mockups, but in code
Before settling on a design I make several mockups, as in any project. The difference is that I build them directly in code, without publishing them, so I see exactly how the final version would look.
For my website I built several directions that way and compared them with real content. After that, every adjustment (an alignment, a grey, the weight of a line) is decided on the site, not on a picture.
The direction is mine
The ideas and the decisions are mine. Claude contributes in some areas and takes care of the implementation.
When a tool can change something important, it proposes the change with concrete values and waits. In the Ableton system, Claude doesn't touch a mix until I approve the adjustment, and if it doesn't convince me, it's undone.
If it can't be measured, it isn't done
When the system adjusts a mix, it measures the sound before and after. Once the first measurement was wrong: it compared two different parts of the track. We ran the test again. A bad measurement is worse than none.
Judgment is written down
The content agent is not allowed to invent data. The rule exists because in one test it made up a month.
What matters can't depend on someone remembering. It's written as a rule, the agent applies it and I check that it holds.
Anything that can break something starts switched off
The Ableton system has 438 tools. 26 can delete or damage something in a project, and they ship disabled. Turning them on is a decision, not an accident.
Where it falls short
Working this way requires knowing exactly what I want. If the request is vague, so is the result.
And automated checks don't cover everything. Whether a mix sounds right or a design works is, in the end, decided by my ears and my eyes.
What has changed
Building is no longer what takes most of my time. The time goes into deciding what needs doing and checking that it's right.
If you want to talk about any of this, write to me on Telegram or at