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Tools

Vol. 01 · August 2026 · 8 entries · 1 new

AdoptTrialAssessHoldPlaywright — adopt17PlaywrightGitLab CI — adopt18GitLab CILightning CSS — adopt19Lightning CSSDrizzle Kit — adopt20Drizzle KitStorybook — trial21StorybookInfisical — trial22Infisicalbetter-auth — trial23better-authLighthouse in CI — assess24Lighthouse in CI
  • Adopt
  • Trial
  • Assess
  • Hold
  • New

AdoptOur default. We reach for this without a discussion.

  1. 17

    Playwright

    End-to-end tests, visual checks and the odd build-time screenshot run through one API. It also drives the renderer that produces this site’s showreel.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Adoptadded
  2. 18

    GitLab CI

    Pipelines live in the repository and run on the client’s own runners, which is what makes handover a permissions change rather than a migration.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Adoptadded
  3. 19

    Lightning CSS

    Bundling, minification and transpiling of modern CSS with no plugin chain. Read its shorthand-folding rules before writing scroll-driven animation.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Adoptadded
  4. 20

    Drizzle Kit

    Migrations generated from the schema and then committed as plain SQL. What runs in production is a file we reviewed, not a diff computed at deploy time.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Adoptadded

TrialRunning in production on at least one project.

  1. 21

    Storybook

    The review surface for shared components, so a state can be looked at without routing to a page that produces it. Earns its keep once components are reused.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Trialadded
  2. 22

    Infisical

    Self-hostable secret management with per-environment scoping. Chosen over a hosted vault because the client keeps the instance.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Trialadded
  3. 23

    better-authNew

    Sessions, OAuth and organisation membership as tables in our own database rather than a third-party user directory. Good so far on one production system.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Trialadded

AssessWorth the time to understand. Not in client work yet.

  1. 24

    Lighthouse in CI

    A budget that fails the pipeline is more honest than a score checked before launch and never again. We are still choosing thresholds we would actually enforce.

    History
    1. Vol. 01 · August 2026Assessadded

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