Steve Thomas

Building software for business and for fun with @laravelphp at Coding Labs. Our open source work:

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

Really proud of our support for @Ecologi_hq at Coding Labs. Every time a client invoice is paid via @Xero, our back office software automatically buys more trees. 1,139 and counting! https://t.co/HKzOCoO467

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@LaraconAU

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@jeffrey_way I don’t think I’ve written a line of code this year which is a near 100% conversion from 2025… I’m also not reading code for my side quests, but I disagree we stop reviewing code anytime soon.

More likely is QA processes evolve, possibly assisted by a new abstraction layer

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@chrisrickard Ah that makes a lot more sense! Only 200? 😂 I’ve actually been thinking of userdoc lately as an interesting guardrails / domain logic / abstraction container. Is doc to code + doc to issue tracker + code to doc the main focus areas?

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

I should clarify this is home state of Victoria - to my knowledge QLD is not considering this

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

Please never consider this QLD.

As an employer I’m all for negotiating flexible wfh arrangements, but I don’t need the State Govt to mandate which business hours I can spend in person with my team.

The quote really nails it:

https://t.co/EXapOqdjnr

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@PeterJThomson @claudeai @openclaw @laravelphp @aarondfrancis Subscription can be solved using Process and claude -p, not sure if that could be hacked together as a custom provider or if it’s a bridge too far for sdk / prism.

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@PeterJThomson @claudeai @openclaw @laravelphp @aarondfrancis I’ve built a small openclaw inspired node js app and now adding a slim native Mac OS app to bridge into apple data.

Have had multiple moments where I think this would be way easier in Laravel.

Key problems:
- use Claude subscription instead of API key
- slack socket mode

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

Inertia Form Builder

Define forms as js objects in Laravel Inertia vue.js apps.

- full reactivity
- grids and sections
- supports precognition
- use any component that has a v-model

https://t.co/9CSCf5phiF

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

Shipped a couple of bucket list items DX this year -

Gooey
A vue.js component library that has all the Shadcn-vue components plus a couple of bonus components.

- supports tailwind 3 & 4
- UI components as a dependency, patched from upstream
- themes

https://t.co/aCzWyAU8V5

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

My favourite thing about Claude code is when it says “oops I pushed to the wrong branch and now there are conflicts” and it just patches things up in 20 seconds… compared to me spending 4 hours making line by line fixes and inevitably just nuking the whole thing

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@dvassallo I’ve setup my 8 year old with Claude and Roblox Studio MCP and he has published a game with a bunch of detailed functionality.

It makes perfect sense for him to converse in natural language; his generation will never have to deal with code (by necessity) the way I did.

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

I caved to the hype train and gave @openclaw a try - almost threw in the towel when WhatsApp refused to authenticate, but eventually got slack up and running.

NGL it was non trivial to get started but I’m pretty excited to see what I can automate with expansive OS-level access

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

Early numbers are in… 294 contributions to GitHub in the first 3 weeks of 2026, compared to 1,368 for all of 2025.

At this rate, I’m going to 4x or 5x last years contributions 🤯

It’s hard to describe how satisfying it is to finally be able to implement most of my ideas, fast

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

it'd be rude not to get to 100% for the week... 40 hours LFG

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@MrPunyapal

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@simonhamp As for how this works in a world of agents, perhaps the spec can also expose tools to agents for headless mode

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@simonhamp I think in an ideal world, all browsers fully support PWAs, and it becomes the gold standard.

- JavaScript APIs can do all the important native stuff (afaik)
- one responsive app in conventional web tech works everywhere and can feel like a native app if you want it to

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@marcelpociot @joelgrus I’d go as far as to say that in most cases in the future, I will skip building a Laravel API altogether, and go straight to mcp server.

Btw I’m happy to be proved wrong on mcp!

[Steve Thomas @steve_coding]

@marcelpociot @joelgrus I use a linear skill that calls Linear mcp, falling back to a ts library, and eventually to API calls.

The mcp lacks some tools like retrieving initiatives, but the fallback kicks in seamlessly.

To me this all feels sensible 🤷‍♂️ - mcp belongs on the frontline