Case studies
Short, evidence-based records of the decisions, failures, recoveries, and boundaries worth carrying into the next project.
Across projects
Each project study starts with what was actually attempted, then records the strongest result and the lesson that should survive the implementation.
Private Reel
The first automatic-updater release passed build and signature checks but could not launch on the Intel receiver Mac.
ResultThe repaired app completed a real signed update and visible agent restart while preserving all 77 Keep jobs.
Carry forwardBuild confidence is not boundary confidence; launch, publishing, vendor integration, and recovery each need their own real-system test.
Playport
A small login comparison became a real public beta with durable accounts, recovery, passkeys, email, parent-managed teen profiles, and an installable phone companion.
ResultFour login methods reach one account system, and physical phone approval and denial pass in production; camera-based QR reopening and deliberate offline recovery remain open.
Carry forwardName evidence as proved, covered, inferred, or open; a successful UI, build, or provider request only proves the boundary it actually exercised.
Fire TV Remote
A fragile IP-dependent screen-control workflow became a universal Mac launcher plus a narrow Fire TV discovery companion, packaged in one versioned repository and release.
ResultBoth Macs recovered from intentionally bad saved state and opened a controllable window; companion 0.2.1 also repaired the soft 4K artwork with a physically verified high-resolution asset.
Carry forwardAutomate discovery and recovery without bypassing physical authorization, and verify the running artifact and real display—not only metadata.
Pings
The Frontend Mentor notification challenge became a focused study of read hierarchy, filtering, browser-local continuity, and an honest caught-up state.
ResultA private responsive release now supports individual and bulk read actions, All and Unread filters, refresh persistence, keyboard focus, and a clear reset path.
Carry forwardNotification state should communicate what still needs attention through redundant hierarchy and explicit scope—not urgency styling or implied server state.
Inside Private Reel
The parts are separated so a later project can reuse one lesson without importing the whole Private Reel architecture.
Gallery & federation
OperationalCombine titles from reachable Macs without uploading catalogs, thumbnails, paths, or media to the hosted application.
LessonA hosted interface can coordinate private systems without becoming their storage or proxy layer.
Series & watch
Verified with Mac1 offlineKept videos were correctly typed as series on Mac2, but playback still depended on the original source-library label.
LessonConsumers should depend on semantic type and capability, not the name of the system that first produced the file.
Cooking
Production fix verifiedThe connected Mac could answer discovery while an older Cooking endpoint returned 404, leaving a blank page even though another Mac held the recipes.
LessonReachability is not capability; fallback must verify the specific job a peer can perform.
Keep & Mac2
77 transfers verifiedMac2 needed Series and Recipes to remain available when Mac1 slept, without confusing Keep with a same-device download or unsafe deletion.
LessonCopying, verifying, and removing are separate state transitions; the interface should never collapse them into one ambiguous action.
Mac companion
0.1.6 operationalThe local agent originally required repository commands, while a standalone app also had to preserve folders, Keep history, private networking, and safe updates.
LessonA companion app should own repeated local operations, but every operating-system and vendor boundary still needs exact-artifact testing.
iPhone live sharing
Shipped in repositoryLet the gallery browse current phone photos while keeping the phone temporary, foreground-bound, and separate from persistent Mac preferences.
LessonTemporary sources need honest availability and ownership semantics instead of pretending to be always-on servers.
Books
AvailableSaved reading needed a stable home without becoming another media filter or competing with the primary library task.
LessonA destination with a different job should be navigated to directly, not disguised as another filter in an unrelated collection.
Projects
Four projects curatedBring active projects together in the gallery without exposing Obsidian notes, repository paths, private URLs, or automatic vault contents.
LessonAn index is a deliberately reviewed publication surface—not a synchronization shortcut.
Shared experience
Gallery-wide passIndependent pages accumulated different navigation, focus, loading, polling, and recovery behavior even when they shared the same private-agent model.
LessonA page is not complete when its happy-path content renders; interruption, return, keyboard use, and stale data are part of the interface.