Lac Tran An

- Self-taught developer • 5yoe
- Learning SWE, AI in public
- Building - an all-in-one API Client, DB Client & Data Inspector.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

I got tired of constant tool switching, so I built PostPilot.

An all-in-one local devtool with:
• API client
• DB client
• Data inspector

Built for workflows where you keep jumping between tools, copying IDs, and losing focus.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

Also shipped a bunch of DB client fixes and OpenAPI import improvements in this release.

I wrote up the full breakdown on r/webdev if you'd like to check it out: https://t.co/tDXekIEz3f

If you find it useful, an upvote would really help get it in front of more developers. 🙏

Project: https://t.co/AiLeCai5ne
Changelog: https://t.co/vkzwOAOejK

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

Been working on PostPilot, my local-first API + DB client, and finally shipped SSE support today 🎞️.

This ended up taking much longer than I expected.

Streaming responses aren't difficult to receive.

Making them pleasant to debug is.

Instead of showing a blank loading screen, PostPilot now:
• automatically detects text/event-stream
• displays events live with timestamps and event types
• lets you stop the stream without losing previous events

Small feature, but one I'm genuinely happy with.

Curious: what's the most annoying part of working with SSE or streaming APIs?

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@soham_nayak04 Yeah, depends, if you are an 18-year-old and have good self-control, then it still 50/50 to go to college.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@DevBegie It is true. But the real reason is that we had devoured all the easy parts and left a ton of tiny bugs 😂.
2 hours to implement the feature.
8 hours to fix its bugs.
Rule 80/20 here.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@soham_nayak04 Learn a lot of fundamentals with the most strategic approach. Spending money on the program also forces us to learn seriously.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@hiarun02 I use it too. No blame.

Except for some websites that got errors on Edge but not on Chrome.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@javarevisited Write operation now needs to update the index too. As named, the index is a quick outline of what we can serve.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@smart_egg @burkeholland Both Claude and Cursor.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@smart_egg @burkeholland Yes I prefer a multi steps plan where we can split changes into reviewable, testable steps, reivew one step before going into the next.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@dark_coderz More productive in a lazy way 😂

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@IamAroke Using Claude to summarize the code flow would be a wonderful use case.

AI works hard, is dedicated, and carefully looks at all details.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

Most AI founders fear one thing:

💣Waking up to find Anthropic just launched your product.

That's exactly what happened to Viktor, an AI startup building an "AI Employee" for enterprise teams.
Anthropic recently introduced Claude Tag, an AI teammate for Slack that looked surprisingly familiar.

So what did Viktor do?

They bought the Google Ads keyword "Claude Tag."

Anthropic had just spent millions educating the market about AI Employees.
Viktor simply showed up when people searched.

According to their CEO, they only lost a handful of customers while gaining hundreds of new signups from the increased attention.

---------------------------------

But the story made me think about something even more interesting.

Viktor's takeaway was:
"Rent the intelligence. Own the context."

I think there's an even broader lesson for AI builders today.
Rent the intelligence. Build the harness.

Because the harness is what owns the context.
We're entering the era of Harness Engineering.

Think about it.

An AI product isn't just a model anymore.

Agent = Model + Harness

The model provides intelligence.
The harness turns that intelligence into a useful product.

The harness includes things like:
• Context management
• Memory
• Prompt orchestration
• Tool calling
• MCP / external integrations
• Permissions
• Human approval
• UI/UX
• Workflows
• Observability

This is why companies built on the same foundation model can still look completely different.

Claude Code is a harness.
Cursor is a harness.
Perplexity is a harness.
GitHub Copilot is a harness.

The foundation model may change every few months.
Claude is ahead today.
GPT might be ahead tomorrow.
Gemini, DeepSeek, or an open-weight model could lead next year.

But if your product is only "Claude wrapped with a button", you're competing with Anthropic.

If your value comes from your harness - your workflows, integrations, context, and user experience - you have something much harder to replace.

Maybe that's why we're seeing a new engineering discipline emerge.

Not prompt engineering.

Harness Engineering.

The model gets smarter every month.
Your harness is what customers stay for.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@0xlelouch_ I don't think engineers will disappear. They'll evolve.
I actually had to add a rule to my CLAUDE.md: If you're unsure, ask me instead of guessing.
You can only let AI truly "vibe code" once it's right nearly 100% of the time.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@tsoding No matter how much effort you would add to normalize it 😆

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@theo Would say depends on the level of difficulty.
But with the current level of intelligence, the model is less important than the harness around it.
Besides intelligence, its knowledge can be outdated; the harness helps it stay up-to-date.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@dark_coderz How to prompt AI best also depends on programming experience, I think.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@EOEboh Yes, a clear contract makes it easier to co-work.

[Lac Tran An @LacTranAn]

@p_d_d_t Congrats, sister. What a great way to start the day!