Open-Source
Branding a CLI Tool in 4 Days: Mascot, Screencasts, and Visual Identity with AI
Most CLI tools ship with no visual identity beyond a help screen. Here’s how I used AI image generation to create Shelby, a consistent mascot with a locked-down spec, and built a complete brand system - poses, screencasts, color palette, terminal theme - for shelfctl in 4 days.
Artifact-Boundary Productization: Clean OSS/Commercial Separation
The execution boundary determines everything: features that need the system alive belong in the platform (OSS). Features that analyze artifacts after shutdown become the product (commercial). A framework for clean OSS/commercial separation.
GPL & AGPL: Freedom Through Copyleft - Complete Guide to Viral Licensing
Why copyleft licenses ‘infect’ derivative works, how GPL differs from permissive licenses, and when viral licensing protects community contributions from proprietary capture
Apache License 2.0: When Patent Protection Matters - Complete Guide
Why Apache 2.0 matters for patent-heavy projects, how it differs from MIT, and when explicit patent grants protect your users and contributors
Why Choose the MIT License? A Comprehensive Guide to Open Source Licensing
Why MIT became the most popular open-source license, when to choose it over GPL/Apache/BSD, and a decision framework for selecting the right license for your project
Your README is a Landing Page, Not Your Documentation
More features always lead to more sprawl. The longer it goes on, the harder it is to bring back under control. Here’s how to treat your README like a landing page - with hooks, not walls of text.