Applied AI, agents, evaluation, retrieval, developer tools, and production engineering.https://alexmlewis.com/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/ground-truthing-llm-judges/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/ground-truthing-llm-judges/LLM-as-judge is the default eval now — but a judge is just another unreliable model. Here is how to check whether its verdicts correlate with real outcomes, and catch the leniency bias most judges have.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTEvaluationAgentshttps://alexmlewis.com/notes/how-this-site-is-built/https://alexmlewis.com/notes/how-this-site-is-built/How this site is builtTue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTMetaAstrohttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/50-ai-skills-for-the-parts-of-your-day-you-never-get-around-to/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/50-ai-skills-for-the-parts-of-your-day-you-never-get-around-to/The biggest productivity gap isn't code — it's context gathering, note-taking, and status updates. I built 50 AI workflow skills to make those 15-minute tasks actually happen every day.Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTAgentsDeveloper Toolshttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/use-insights-to-improve-your-claude-code-setup/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/use-insights-to-improve-your-claude-code-setup/I ran /insights in Claude Code and walked through what it found — friction patterns I hadn't noticed, CLAUDE.md rules I should have written weeks ago, and what changed after I applied the suggestions.Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTDeveloper ToolsAgentshttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/reward-engineering-and-evaluation-making-your-system-learn-what-matters/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/reward-engineering-and-evaluation-making-your-system-learn-what-matters/This is the third post in our series on probabilistic prompt pipelines. In our first post, we explored why static prompts become bottlenecks. The second…Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTEvaluationRetrievalhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/building-the-selector-retrieval-bandits-and-cold-start-solutions/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/building-the-selector-retrieval-bandits-and-cold-start-solutions/This is the second post in our series on probabilistic prompt pipelines. In the first post, we explored why static prompts become bottlenecks and saw a…Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTRetrievalEvaluationhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/why-static-prompts-fail-and-how-probabilistic-selection-solves-real-problems/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/why-static-prompts-fail-and-how-probabilistic-selection-solves-real-problems/This is the first post in a four-part series on building production-ready probabilistic prompt pipelines. By the end of this post, you'll understand why…Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTRetrievalEvaluationhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/claude-code-the-hidden-testing-ground-for-ai-agents/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/claude-code-the-hidden-testing-ground-for-ai-agents/I've been using Claude Code daily since it launched for general use. After months of working with it, I've developed a theory about what's actually…Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTAgentshttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/staying-sane-on-a-6-000-line-refactor-with-claude-code/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/staying-sane-on-a-6-000-line-refactor-with-claude-code/As large language models become more capable, it's tempting to rely on them for increasingly complex engineering tasks. Tools like Anthropic's Claude Code…Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTAgentsDeveloper Toolshttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/mastering-conditional-types-in-typescript/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/mastering-conditional-types-in-typescript/As your TypeScript codebase grows, so does the need for abstractions that are both expressive and type-safe. Conditional types unlock a form of type-level…Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTTypeScripthttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/understanding-useeffect-vs-uselayouteffect-in-react-a-comprehensive-guide/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/understanding-useeffect-vs-uselayouteffect-in-react-a-comprehensive-guide/React Hooks have profoundly changed the way we write React applications, allowing developers to manage state and side effects elegantly in functional…Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTReacthttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/why-returning-cleanup-functions-in-useeffect-matters-in-react/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/why-returning-cleanup-functions-in-useeffect-matters-in-react/React’s useEffect hook is one of the most powerful and commonly used features in functional components. It enables side effects like data fetching,…Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTReacthttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/a-guide-to-setting-up-vercel-log-storage-in-aws-s3/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/a-guide-to-setting-up-vercel-log-storage-in-aws-s3/Modern cloud applications generate vast amounts of logs that are crucial for debugging, monitoring, and maintaining application health. While Vercel…Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTInfrastructurehttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/one-thing-balancing-hard-and-soft-skills-in-the-age-of-ai/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/one-thing-balancing-hard-and-soft-skills-in-the-age-of-ai/In “Formal Methods Aren’t Just Formalities”, Philip Brooker dives into the importance of applying formal methods to complex software systems. These…Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTCareerhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/enhancing-retrieval-augmented-generation-with-xml-prompting/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/enhancing-retrieval-augmented-generation-with-xml-prompting/In my current role, I’ve been working on a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system designed to provide safe, reliable personal finance guidance. Given…Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTRetrievalhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/one-thing-cursor-claude-and-the-mocking-struggle/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/one-thing-cursor-claude-and-the-mocking-struggle/As someone who spends a lot of time coding, I rely heavily on Cursor as my daily IDE, and I most often use Claude 3.5 Sonnet as my preferred model for…Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTDeveloper Toolshttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/one-thing-kneading-a-new-hobby/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/one-thing-kneading-a-new-hobby/I’m kicking off a new blogging experiment I’m calling “One Thing.” Each day, I plan to share one thing I learned—big or small, tech-related or totally…Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTPersonalhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/automating-meeting-note-management-with-krisp-zapier-google-drive-and-notion/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/automating-meeting-note-management-with-krisp-zapier-google-drive-and-notion/Transform how you manage meeting notes with an automated workflow using Krisp, Zapier, Google Drive, and Notion. This step-by-step guide will help you capture, store, and organize your meeting transcripts effortlessly, saving time and ensuring all your notes are neatly summarized and accessible. Ready to simplify your workflow? Let’s dive in!Thu, 02 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTAutomationhttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/creating-a-blog-with-gatsbyjs-part-two/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/creating-a-blog-with-gatsbyjs-part-two/Create a blog with GatsbyJSFri, 22 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTDeveloper Toolshttps://alexmlewis.com/writing/creating-a-blog-with-gatsbyjs-part-one/https://alexmlewis.com/writing/creating-a-blog-with-gatsbyjs-part-one/Create a blog with GatsbyJSFri, 15 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTDeveloper Tools