Lab
AI tools, creative workflows, developer deep-dives, and behind-the-scenes from RAXXO Studios.
358 articles
Debugging a Production Bug I Cannot Reproduce Locally
Reconstruct the timeline from prod logs before touching code Bisect by deploy to find the exact commit that broke Add targeted instrumentation, test one hypothesis...
The 5 Metrics I Check Weekly and the Ones I Ignore
Weekly review runs under 10 minutes with 5 tracked numbers I track repeat buyers, not raw traffic or follower counts Email replies beat likes as...
Shopify Theme Sections I Rebuild on Every Store
Four sections (hero, proof band, FAQ, CTA) I copy into every Shopify store Schema blocks a non-dev can drag without breaking layout Every text field...
Accessible Color Contrast Without Killing the Brand
I keep a dark UI with a bright accent WCAG-AA readable at 4.5:1 Shift lightness not hue to fix failing text Two documented exceptions: decorative...
Feature Flags Without a Vendor: The Minimal Setup I Ship
Boolean flags in env vars cover 80% of what vendors sell Gradual rollout by hashing user IDs into 100 buckets Instant rollback in under 60...
The CSS color-mix Patterns I Use Across Every RAXXO Theme
One brand variable feeds hover, disabled, surface, and text colors 5 color-mix patterns replaced a 40-line hand-curated palette Accessible text picks itself from the background...
Local-First Architecture for Solo Apps When CRDTs Help and When They Hurt
Local-first cut my note app's perceived latency to zero across 3 devices Yjs and Automerge solve sync conflicts you may not actually have ElectricSQL saved...
Shopify Metafields Done Right Three Patterns From Production
Typed metafield definitions catch bad data before it reaches your theme List-of-references replaces fragile comma-separated strings for product relations One idempotent resync script beats hand-editing...
Pricing a Digital Product as a Solo Studio
Three-question framework: floor, ceiling, anchor before any product ships First three products were priced 40% too low, all three The anchor question fixed pricing faster...
Why I Stopped Reaching for Redis on Solo Projects
Six Redis use cases replaced with SQLite, Postgres, and Edge KV Rate limiting fits in one SQLite table with 40 lines Postgres LISTEN handles pubsub...
The Stripe Webhook Patterns I Use to Avoid Lost Events
Signature verification on the edge blocks forged payloads before they hit my logic Idempotency keys stop duplicate order creation from Stripe retries A dead-letter table...
Form UX in 2026 Native HTML Validation Is Finally Enough
Removed a 12 KB validation library across 3 surfaces using native HTML :user-valid and :user-invalid fire only after interaction, killing premature error noise accent-color styles...