Tag: devtools

Linux strace:See What a Stuck Process Is Waiting On

Hands-on strace recipes — attach to a PID, follow children, filter syscalls, and read the wait that logs never mentioned.

Linux

Linux tar and gzip:Archive, Compress, and Restore Without Corrupt Surprises

Hands-on tar and gzip recipes — create an archive, inspect it before extract, compress with gzip, and restore without clobbering the wrong tree.

Linux

Linux cut, sort, uniq, and tr:Shape Text Before You Pipe to awk

Hands-on text-prep recipes — slice columns, sort keys, count uniques, and translate characters before you reach for awk or sed.

Linux

Linux ssh, scp, and Port Forwarding:Reach a Remote Box Without Guesswork

Hands-on SSH recipes — keys and config, copy files with scp, and tunnel a port without memorizing every flag.

Linux

Linux cron and systemd Timers:Run Jobs on a Schedule You Can Trust

Hands-on crontab and systemd timer recipes — schedule a job, choose calendar vs boot delays, and find the run that never fired.

Linux

Linux systemctl:Start, Stop, and Debug systemd Units

Hands-on systemctl recipes for everyday work — inspect units, start and stop services, enable at boot, and debug failed units without guessing.

Git

Find the Break:git bisect When Something Stopped Working

Hands-on git bisect — binary-search commits to find the first one that broke a working check, then reset HEAD and optionally automate the walk.

Git

Cherry-Pick:Move One Commit Without Merging the Branch

Copy one commit onto another branch — bring a hotfix from main onto your feature without merging the rest of main.

Git

Review Before Merge:Pull Requests on the Host Without the Guesswork

Open a pull request, read the host diff, merge on GitHub or GitLab, then pull main locally so review happens before the default branch moves.

Git

Git Rebase:Replay Your Branch Without a Merge Commit

Hands-on Git rebase — fetch an updated main, replay your feature commits on top of it, and skip the extra merge commit.

Git

Reset Too Far:Recover Commits With git reflog

Hands-on Git — recover a commit after a reset that went too far, using git reflog to restore HEAD or create a recovery branch.

Git

Git Stash:Park Uncommitted Work Without a Fake Commit

Hands-on Git stash — park a dirty working tree, switch branches, and restore the work without a fake WIP commit.

AI/ML

How MCP Talks:Discovery, Capability Negotiation, and Transports

How MCP clients and servers discover capabilities, negotiate features, and exchange JSON-RPC over stdio or Streamable HTTP — a self-contained mental model for protocol version 2026-07-28.

AI/ML

Hardening MCP Servers:Auth, Least Privilege, and Tool Safety

Trust boundaries, host approval UX, env secrets, input validation, read-only vs mutating tools, and a practical hardening checklist for a TypeScript MCP bookmarks server.

AI/ML

Host an MCP Server for Public Use:Streamable HTTP and a Live URL

Serve the bookmarks MCP tools over Streamable HTTP with createMcpHandler, protect them with a bearer token, deploy one PaaS URL, and point Cursor at url plus headers.

AI/ML

Ship Your MCP Server:npm Package and the MCP Registry

Package a TypeScript MCP server for npm, add mcpName verification, publish with npm, and register metadata with mcp-publisher — distribution, not hosting.

AI/ML

Plug In an MCP Server in Cursor:Your First Working Connection

Wire a local MCP server in Cursor with mcp.json — project vs global config, field-by-field stdio setup, verify Connected, and run one approved tool call.

AI/ML

Build Your First MCP Server in TypeScript:Tools Over stdio

Build a local bookmarks MCP server in TypeScript — McpServer, Zod tools, stderr logging, MCP Inspector first, then wire the build into Cursor over stdio.

AI/ML

MCP Beyond Tools:Resources and Prompts in the Same Server

Add an MCP resource and prompt to a TypeScript stdio server — bootstrap from the bookmarks part-3 tag, verify in Inspector, and note Cursor host limits.

AI/ML

MCP Without the Hype:What It Is and Why Agents Need It

What the Model Context Protocol is, the host/client/server vocabulary, tools vs resources vs prompts, and when agents need MCP — or when Skills and rules are enough.

Kubernetes

kubectl:See What Is Deployed and How It Is Configured

Hands-on kubectl recipes for deploy verification — find pods by label, read placement and resources, confirm image tags or digests, and read recent cluster events.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes with kind:A Cluster for Learning, Testing, and POCs

Spin up a disposable local Kubernetes cluster with kind — install prerequisites, create a multi-node cluster, verify with kubectl, deploy a sample app, and tear it down cleanly.

AI/ML

AI Agent Skills:What They Are and How to Use Them

Hands-on Cursor Agent Skills for beginners — what a skill is, where it lives, how to write a SKILL.md, and how the agent picks it up.

Git

Stay Off Main:Git Branches Without the Fear

Hands-on Git branching — create a feature branch, push it with upstream tracking, merge back into main, and clean up local and remote branches.

Git

When Push Fails:Merge Conflicts, Revert, and Rollback

Hands-on Git for the stuck push — fetch remote changes, resolve merge conflicts, then revert or roll back commits safely.

Git

Git Without the Panic:Init, Commit, Push

Hands-on Git for beginners — init a repo, stage and commit safely, read diffs, and push your first project to a remote.

Linux

Linux Troubleshooting Toolkit:Diagnose Crashes and High Load

Hands-on triage with htop, journalctl, dmesg, and lsof — diagnose high load and crashes by chaining the right tool at each step.

Linux

Advanced File Search & Manipulation:find, xargs, and sed

Hands-on batch editing on the command line — find the right files, feed them safely through xargs, and rewrite them with sed.

Linux

Linux rsync:Sync Files Efficiently, Locally and Remote

Hands-on rsync recipes for everyday work — incremental sync, remote backups over SSH, progress output, and safe dry-runs.

Linux

Linux sudo and /etc/sudoers:Manage Privileged Access with Intent

Hands-on sudo and sudoers recipes — run commands as root or another user, edit policy safely with visudo, and delegate fine-grained privileges without handing out full root.

Linux

Linux du and df:Find Disk Space Hogs

Hands-on df and du recipes — check filesystem free space, hunt directory hogs, and resolve “no space left on device” with confidence.

Linux

Linux ss and netstat:Monitor Network Connections

Hands-on ss and netstat recipes — list listening sockets, inspect open connections, check routing tables, and read interface statistics.

Linux

Linux kill, pkill, and killall:Send Signals Safely

Hands-on kill, pkill, and killall recipes — choose SIGTERM, SIGKILL, or SIGHUP, target the right PIDs, and stop processes without wrecking managed services.

Linux

Linux lsof:See Who Is Using a File or Port

Hands-on lsof recipes for everyday work — find which processes hold files open, bind ports, or leak file descriptors.

Linux

Linux chmod, chown, and umask:Control Who Can Touch a File

Hands-on chmod, chown, and umask recipes — decode numeric vs symbolic modes, fix ownership, and understand default permissions for new files.

Linux

Linux xargs:Turn Lists into Command Arguments

Hands-on xargs recipes for everyday work — feed find and grep into commands, batch safely, and place arguments where they belong.

Linux

Linux journalctl:Query the systemd Journal

Hands-on journalctl recipes for everyday work — filter by unit, severity, time range, and boot, then read the results with confidence.

Linux

Linux sed:Edit Streams Without Opening an Editor

Hands-on sed recipes for everyday work — substitute text, delete lines, edit files in place, and reshape output in pipelines.

Linux

Linux ps and pgrep:Find Running Processes

Hands-on ps and pgrep recipes — locate processes by PID, user, memory footprint, or command path without a live monitor.

Linux

Linux dmesg:Read the Kernel Ring Buffer

Hands-on dmesg recipes for everyday work — inspect boot messages, chase hardware faults, filter by level, and watch the kernel live.

Linux

Linux top, htop, and btop:Watch CPU, RAM, and Load

Hands-on top, htop, and btop recipes — read load averages, find CPU and memory hogs, and triage a busy box in real time.

Linux

Linux find:Locate Files by What You Know

Hands-on find recipes for everyday work — hunt by name, type, size, and time, then act on matches with confidence.

Linux

Linux awk:Slice Fields and Summarize Streams

Hands-on awk recipes for everyday work — pick columns, filter rows, change separators, and compute totals in pipelines.

Linux

Linux grep:Search Files Like You Mean It

Hands-on grep recipes for everyday work — find text, filter logs, search codebases, and pipe results with confidence.