I Thought Deploying an MCP Server to Azure Would Be Simple. Three Port Conflicts Later…

You know that moment when you read the Azure Container Apps documentation and think “this looks straightforward”? Yeah, that was me last week. FastMCP server working locally, Docker container running perfectly, Azure deployment guide looking clean and simple. Then I tried to actually deploy it. Port binding conflicts. Authentication failures that made no sense. Container […]
Claude Code Needed a Home. Archon Gave Me a Security Education Instead.

How setting up a self-hosted AI stack turned into a crash course in Docker networking, zero-trust security, and why simple solutions beat perfect ones There’s this moment when you’re deep into AI development where you realize you’re paying $20/month for Claude Pro, another subscription for API credits, and you’re still hitting rate limits when you […]
I Forked a Repo to Supercharge Claude Code (And Accidentally Learned Zero-Trust Architecture)

You know that moment when a tool becomes so powerful that the tooling around it becomes the bottleneck? That was me with Claude Code about three weeks ago. Claude Code has gotten ridiculously good. I’m using it for client projects, my own infrastructure work, even for building out complex n8n workflows. But the more powerful […]
From Replit to Docker and Self-hosting: When Simple Becomes Complex

Remember that campaign management system I built to save a client over $300/month by ditching Airtable’s expensive client portal? Well, that story just got a sequel – and like most sequels, it involved way more complexity than I originally anticipated. What started as a simple request to “move it off Replit so we own it” […]
From Self-Hosted Chaos to CI/CD Zen: My DevOps Reality Check

You know that moment when you’re running a perfectly functional self-hosted stack, and you think “This could be better”? Yeah, that was me a few weeks ago. What started as a simple database migration turned into a full-blown DevOps adventure complete with firewall lockouts, authentication failures, and AWS deciding to have a bad day. Here’s […]