James Sugrue

Engineering Manager @Zazzle · Wrote the book on Backbone.js (literally) · Built · More interested in the problem than the stack

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

What a day! Meeting @stevewoz at @Sisense Eureka today. Such a friendly guy.

[GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg]

how to use Google's NEW open source Design.md + AI Skills to make your startup look like a $100 million company in 1 hour:

1. Design.md is an open source file from Google that captures the soul of a design. Typography, colors, spacing, all in one markdown file. You attach it to your prompt and your agent builds beautiful things every time.

2. Think of it this way. The HTML is the finished dish. The design.md is the recipe. The skills are the ingredients. Put them together and everything you build looks consistent and professional.

3. Don't create a design system from scratch. Find a brand you love. Linear, Stripe, Vercel, whatever resonates. Study it. Use ChatGPT or Claude to help you extract the design language into your own design.md file.

4. Build skills on top of your design.md. A landing page skill. A mobile app skill. A motion design skill. A slide deck skill. Each one references the same design.md so everything looks like it came from the same designer.

5. The biggest mistake people make: they nail one screen and then everything else looks generic. Design.md solves this. One file keeps every page, every format, every medium consistent.

6. Use it across everything. Your landing page. Your app. Your pitch deck. Your promo videos. Same DNA. Same taste. Same system. That's what separates a startup that looks real from one that looks vibe-coded.

7. Build a second brain for design inspiration. When you see something beautiful in the real world or online, capture it. Save it. When you're building something new, reference it. Taste is developed, not downloaded.

8. It's obvious but the difference between a product people trust and a product people bounce from is how it looks and feels. Design.md gives you that edge.

you can watch below

https://t.co/Am1BdxLtzM

shoutout to @mengto for coming on @startupideaspod and walking through his full workflow.

if you want to use AI to actually build gorgeous designs, you'll want to use see this.

watch

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

This guy literally broke down how to use Claude Code like an expert:

1:40 - Code vs Cowork vs OpenClaw
6:51 - Setting up context status line
12:03 - Sub-agents
17:49 - Creating skills
23:58 - Ask user questions tool
33:33 - Tool-powered skills: Tavily
36:57 - CLI vs MCP vs API hierarchy
39:30 - Make slides skill w/ Puppeteer
43:32 - Auto-invoking skills with hooks
46:49 - Jupyter notebooks for data trust
55:09 - The operating system file structure

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

The most impactful engineers I’ve worked with were rarely the most visible ones. They were the ones who made the people around them faster, clearer, less blocked. Difficult to quantify in a performance review. Very easy to overlook. It’s also what actually moves things forward.

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

I've been in software long enough to watch four things get declared "the future of frontend." I wrote the book on one of them — literally. Each solved real problems. Each created new ones. The survivors had one thing in common: they cared more about the problem than the stack.

[The Startup Ideas Podcast (SIP) 🧃 @startupideaspod]

Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, shared his entire setup.

He runs 5-10 Claudes in parallel. Half his coding happens from his phone.

Here's his 3-part formula for better results:

Use the smartest model available
— Counterintuitive: it's actually cheaper
— Smarter model = fewer tokens = lower total cost
— "Once the plan is good, the code is good"

Invest in your Claude MD
— Plain text file. No special format.
— Whole team contributes multiple times a week
— Every mistake Claude makes gets added so it never happens again

Give Claude a way to verify its own output
— Let it run the code. Let it see the browser.
— "Imagine you're a painter wearing a blindfold"
— Same thing for an AI that can never check its work

His morning routine: wake up, kick off 3 sessions from his phone, check in later.

His workflow: start in plan mode
→ lock the plan
→ auto-accept edits
→ done.

No fancy setup.

No complex tooling.

Just multiple Claudes, a good plan, and a shared knowledge base.

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

Currently debugging to Jonny Greenwood's "One Battle After Another" soundtrack while Claude acts as my wingman on something I probably shouldn't attempt alone. In the absence of true drama, score your code like the fate of the sprint depends on it. Highly recommend.

[Boris Cherny @bcherny]

Reflecting on what engineers love about Claude Code, one thing that jumps out is its customizability: hooks, plugins, LSPs, MCPs, skills, effort, custom agents, status lines, output styles, etc.

Every engineer uses their tools differently. We built Claude Code from the ground up to not just have great defaults, but to also be incredibly customizable. This is a reason why developers fall in love with the product, and why Claude Code's growth continues to accelerate.

I wanted to share a few ways we're seeing people and teams customize their Claudes.

[AWS Amplify @AWSAmplify]

🚀 Today Amplify announces a new TypeScript-based, code-first DX inspired by your feedback.

Instead of using the CLI or Studio, you can provision your infrastructure in files right in your code!

Let’s talk a little bit more about the new experience. 🧵

[Alex DeBrie @alexbdebrie]

If you're looking into event-driven architectures, watch this talk from @donkersgood. Lots of great tips (10, to be exact!).

Hard-won lessons from building an event-driven system @ PostNL.

Also, great images 💯

https://t.co/4OubYxVhMd

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

@AkkocDiren Thank you! Sign up if you can 😀

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

@igorippolitov @donatecode Thanks for the photo!

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

Finding out more about @workvivo’s culture and secrets to scaling is genuinely inspiring. Anything is possible. Andrea Graham is a natural speaker. Full of honesty, showing the road to success is not paved with gold. @RebelConf

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

@damienmulley Been following you for years.... I'm sure someone recommended that I do. It's always interesting!

The only thing I pitch really is my side project, https://t.co/QDOiHmt6de which started innocently enough, always needs more work, but it does what it needs to!

[corkdev.io @corkdev]

Reminder that this Thursday we have our next event with Zohaib Jabbar in @IconicOffices Cork. We'll have some drinks and food at the event too! A good way to finish up your Thursday https://t.co/unR4GCp2Ux

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

We’re back #riverdance

[James Murphy @Jimmyesat]

@SportsJOEdotie @ballsdotie

[Chris Woolum @chriswoolum]

The #Amplify Studio team rewrote the Content Manager from the ground up to provide the experience that customers were asking for. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Please reach out with any feedback. I'd love to hear any ways we could continue to improve 😊

[corkdev.io @corkdev]

At last, CorkDev is back, and it's back with an in person event at the Republic of Work on Thursday Feb 16th, at 6:30pm.

We'll be doing an AWS re:Cap event, with Matheus Guimaraes guiding us through the key announcements from re:Invent 2022.

https://t.co/EtywK588zL

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

I'm hiring software engineers for @zazzle in Cork, Ireland. Trust me, this is a job that you will love. If you're interested send me a message / catch up with me for a coffee.

https://t.co/H7c3LIiBS4

[James Sugrue @sugrue]

@joelennon @seanogdev You get used to the lack of the button and the case. They’re the best headphones I’ve had. And you could wear them for hours without really noticing. Good noise cancelling for travel too

[Ross Barich @rossbarich]

Attending AWS #reInvent? Don't miss the #AWSCommunity session track, led by AWS Heroes!

⭐️ Favorite in the re:Invent session guide now, & grab a seat when reserved seating launches October 11, 10AM PDT:

https://t.co/ovcDIf0ek4