I spent some time this week tracking new developments in the AI and DevOps space to see what was worth a closer look. These notes highlight several interesting pieces regarding new model releases, infrastructure shifts, and more efficient ways to manage your project files.
Introducing North Mini Code: Cohere’s First Model For Developers (Cohere Code Agents Team) - I feel like those new model blog posts are never simple to read. They are packed with numbers, statistics and comparisons with things you may not have known before. But that's what makes them interesting; they are a deep source of information. And yes, that model looks great!
Exploring the SLNX Solution File Format (Dave Brock) - The new format has been out for a while now, and I use it in more and more projects. Much easier to read.
AI keeps changing how we build, think, and even feel about software. This batch of posts & episodes mixes practical agent skills, vibe coding, and faster shipping with a bit of reflection on the old internet and why it still sticks with us.
AI
5 Agent Skills I Use Every Day (Matt Pocock) - This post shares really useful and impactful skills and explains how they work.
9 Ways AI Coding Has Rewired My Brain (Matt Pocock) - An interesting post that not only describes an efficient way to code with AI but also to stay relevant.
Podcasts
Your Images are Out of Date (probably) - The Silent Rebuilds problem (DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - Very interesting episode. I guess I never realized how true it is that as soon as you download your image, they are outdated. This episode talks about the concept of silent rebuilds and tools to help us solve that issue.
503: Welcome to Tiny Tool Town (Merge Conflict) - With a name like Tiny Tool Town, my head always goes to Looney Tunes. No idea why, but this episode is not about that. It's about the collection of open source tools named: Tiny Tool Town, and they also talk about different models in GitHub Copilot.
Building Software using Squad with Brady Gaster (.NET Rocks!) - Turn your Coplot to 11 with Squad. Carl and Richard talk to Brady Gaster about Squad, a tool for creating an AI development team using GitHub Copilot.
Daniel Ward: AI Agents - Episode 393 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - In this episode, they talk about the different AI tools used by developers and DevOps people, and the trends.
Everything Is a Graph (Even Your Dad Jokes) with Roi Lipman (Screaming in the Cloud) - Nice episode about different database and most obviously about graph databases. Very interesting to learn more about all that explosion of database types.
Miscellaneous
Kill Your Ego, Ship Your Work (Golnaz) - Great advice from Golnaz in this post. This is why so many people want to work with her.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, podcasts and books that catch my interest during the week.
A lot of good stuff crossed my radar this week. From Aspire’s continued evolution and local AI workflows with Ollama, to smarter, more contextual help in GitHub Copilot, the theme is clear: better tools, used more intentionally. I also bookmarked a few thoughtful pieces on leadership and communication that are worth slowing down for. Plenty here to explore, whether you’re deep in code or thinking about how teams actually work.
The end of the curl bug-bounty (Daniel Stenberg) - I didn't know about this effort, and it's sad to learn about it too now, of course, but I'm glad those programs exist.
The Art of the Oner (Golnaz) - Another great post from Golnaz talks about how to help the message to land. How and why one takes are helping when presenting and the effort it represents.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
This week’s reads blend cutting-edge tech with practical insights, like how Aspire elevates JavaScript to a first-class citizen in modern development, or why AI’s push toward typed languages might just be the future. From building a self-hosted model registry to uncovering AI’s surprising role in video
production (who knew Adobe had a sound AI gem?), there’s plenty to unpack. And if data-driven wardrobe experiments count as quirky, this week’s got you covered too.
Programming
Aspire for JavaScript developers (David Pine) - JavaScript and all its frameworks are now first citizen in Aspire. This post explains what it means and what the benefits are for developers.
AI
Why AI is pushing developers toward typed languages (Cassidy Williams) - This post shares the evolution of which AI uses languages. I would agree, as I noticed TypeScript was used in more and more blog posts and videos I was seeing online
I tracked everything I wore in 2025. Was it worth it? - I never thought about data related to my wardrobe, but playing with data and trying to understand what it means and how it can be used, that's always a fun thing. Thanks for sharing
Exploring the intersection of AI and code this week, I stumbled on a treasure trove of practical insights, from building AI agents in n8n to Meta’s groundbreaking SAM Audio model. The blend of low-code tools, IDE integrations, and deep dives into .NET profiling shows how innovation is bridging creativity and technical rigor. Whether you’re automating workflows or decoding audio separation, there’s something here to spark curiosity and curiosity-driven coding.
How to Build an AI Agent in n8n for Beginners: Complete 2025 Guide (Snaplama) - I'm a fan of integration tools, and n8n is obviously part of those great tools. That AI node is very useful, and there are numerous ideas and applications you can explore with it. This post shares how you can do it as an agent, and I think a lot of people should try it
Bring your own AI agent to JetBrains IDEs (Sergey Ignatov) - This post shares many news, yes, you can bring your agent into writer, but also a collaboration with Zed and many new features related to those agents, looking forward to dig into those novelties
This #rd explores practical insights on leveraging GitHub Copilot for enhanced .NET testing, the rise of AI-driven documentation solutions, and the importance of security in coding agents. From dissecting Docker’s MCP servers to debating the merits of Minimal APIs, we cover a mix of .NET updates, developer workflows, and emerging best practices. Whether you’re refining build processes, optimizing codebases, or staying ahead of security trends, these notes offer a curated selection of ideas to spark your next project or refactor.
Ask AI from Anywhere: No GUI, No Heavy Clients, No Friction (Frank Boucher) - A cool little tools that you can call from any terminal (yes it works via ssh too!) that call AI and ask a question or does a web research for you. The post and the video explains how it works and where to find the code.
Programming
Reinventing how .NET Builds and Ships (Again) (Matt Mitchell) - This post is not a 30-second read, but it's a detailed story that explains all the facts and how it was built. That great new version 10 in terms of the build.
Ever wished you could ask a question and have the answer come only from a handful of trusted documentation sites—no random blogs, no stale forum posts? That’s exactly what the Check-In Doc MCP Server does. It’s a lightweight Model Context Protocol (MCP) server you can run locally (or host) to funnel questions to selected documentation domains and get a clean AI-generated answer back.
What It Is
The project (GitHub: https://github.com/fboucher/check-in-doc-mcp) is a Dockerized MCP server that:
Accepts a user question.
Calls the Reka AI Research API with constraints (only allowed domains).
Returns a synthesized answer based on live documentation retrieval.
You control which sites are searchable by passing a comma‑separated list of domains (e.g. docs.reka.ai,docs.github.com). That keeps > results focused, reliable, and relevant.
What Is the Reka AI Research API?
Reka AI’s Research API lets you blend language model reasoning with targeted, on‑the‑fly web/document retrieval. Instead of a model hallucinating an answer from static training data, it can:
Perform limited domain‑scoped web searches.
Pull fresh snippets.
Integrate them into a structured response.
In this project, we use the research feature with a web_search block specifying:
allowed_domains: Only the documentation sites you trust.
max_uses: Caps how many retrieval calls it makes per query (controls cost & latency).
Details used here:
Model:reka-flash-research
Endpoint:http://api.reka.ai/v1/chat/completions
Auth: Bearer API key (generated from the Reka dashboard: https://link.reka.ai/free)
How It Works Internally
The core logic lives in ResearchService (src/Domain/ResearchService.cs). Simplified flow:
Initialization
Stores the API key + array of allowed domains, sets model & endpoint, logs a safe startup message.
Build Request Payload
The CheckInDoc(string question) method creates a JSON payload:
var requestPayload = new {
model,
messages = new[] { new { role = "user", content = question } },
research = new {
web_search = new {
allowed_domains = allowedDomains,
max_uses = 4
}
}
};
Send Request
Creates a HttpRequestMessage (POST), adds Authorization: Bearer <APIKEY>, sends JSON to Reka.
Parse Response
Deserializes into a RekaResponse domain object, returns the first answer string.
Adding It to VS Code (MCP Extension)
You can run it as a Docker-based MCP server. Two simple approaches:
Option 1: Via “Add MCP Server” UI
In VS Code (with MCP extension), click Add MCP Server.
Choose type: Docker image.
Image name: fboucher/check-in-doc-mcp.
Enter allowed domains and your Reka API key when prompted.
Option 2: Via mcp.json (Recommended)
Alternatively, you can manually configure it in your mcp.json file. This will make sure your API key isn't displayed in plain text. Add or merge this configuration:
{
"servers": {
"check-in-docs": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run",
"-i",
"--rm",
"-e",
"ALLOWED_DOMAINS=${input:allowed_domains}
",
"-e",
"APIKEY=${input:apikey}",
"fboucher/check-in-doc-mcp"
]
}
},
"inputs": [
{
"id": "allowed_domains",
"type": "promptString",
"description": "Enter the comma-separated list of documentation domains to allow (e.g. docs.reka.ai,docs.github.com):"
},
{
"id": "apikey",
"type": "promptString",
"password": true,
"description": "Enter your Reka Platform API key:"
}
]
}
How to Use It
To use it ask to Check In Doc something or You can now use the SearchInDoc tool in your MCP-enabled environment. Just ask a question, and it will search only the specified documentation domains.
Final Thoughts
It’s intentionally simple—no giant orchestration layer. Just a clean bridge between a question, curated domains, and a research-enabled model. Sometimes that’s all you need to get focused, trustworthy answers.
If this sparks an idea, clone it and adapt away. If you improve it (citations, richer error handling, multi-turn context)—send a PR!
From debugging Docker builds to refining your .NET setup, this week’s Reading Notes delivers a sharp mix of practical dev tips and forward-looking tech insights. We revisit jQuery’s place in today’s web stack, explore AI-enhancing MCP servers, and spotlight open-source projects shaping tomorrow’s tools. Plus, PowerToys gets a sleek upgrade to streamline your Windows workflow.
Let’s check out the ideas and updates that keep your skills fresh and your systems humming.
Programming
A quick look at Dev Tunnels (Mike Irving) - This post shares a very cool feature where you can make your local Host available to someone else to reproduce a bug or try an API without having to deploy. Pretty cool,
6 Steps for Setting Up a New .NET Project the Right Way (Milan Jovanović) - This nice post provides some simple best practices. It helps to keep the code consistent and efficient when the solution contains multiple projects or when multiple developers are involved.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Dives into the intersection of AI and development, exploring tools like GitHub Copilot’s AGENTS.md and the MCP Toolkit for automations, alongside .NET 10.0’s performance gains and OpenAI’s recent updates. Whether you’re optimizing serverless APIs with AWS Lambda or mastering the Web Animation API, this post highlights breakthroughs in code efficiency, model customization, and cloud innovation. Dive into these thought-provoking reads to stay ahead in a rapidly changing world.
Add MCP Servers to Claude Code with MCP Toolkit (Ajeet Singh Raina) - Very cool way to create automations. I have used a lot of low-code and different alternatives to create automation workflows in the past, but this mCP server interactivity is pretty awesome.
Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) Explained (Ignasi Lopez Luna) - Nice post that shows how we can specialize a model ourselves for a very narrow, specific topic
The Web Animation API (Christian Nwamba) - It's the first time I've read about this web animation API, pretty cool even if we need to be careful, I think that precision offers could be very interesting for some animations.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
From Docker's security practices to the latest in GPT-5 discussions, there's quite a mix of topics to dive into. I particularly enjoyed the thought-provoking piece about junior developers in the age of LLMs - it's a conversation we should all be having.
As always, grab your favorite beverage, and let's explore what caught my attention this week!
DevOps
Practitioner's View: How Docker Enables Security by Default (Pedro Ignácio, Denis Cruz Rodrigues) - Improving the culture can be a challenge, but security is worth the effort. This post lists your first targets if you want to go that way, and explains why it's important.
AI
Announcing the NuGet MCP Server Preview - .NET Blog (Jeff Kluge) - Oh! That's a cool one, looking forward to trying it and seeing if you can help me when I'm searching for a package but I don't know the name or don't remember the name
The GitHub Prompt Injection Data Heist | Docker (Ajeet Singh Raina) - Yes! This post talks about this injection story. But there is more! It shares how to prevent it, and all the things that we need to be aware of those dangers.
SPI 885: What's Working on Social Media Right Now (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - Social medias are evolving and this podcast episode talk about how we should adapt and change the way we do business with it.
476: GPT-5 Is Here, What's next? (Merge Conflict) - As much as I like the new GPT-5, they made me realized that I was thinking exactly like them! I won't spoil anything but it is a great episode where James is in fire! ;)
Miscellaneous
The role of junior developers in the world of LLMs (Oren Eini) - This is a great question. AI is definitely affecting the job market. However, this interesting post denies the annihilation of junior roles. What do you think?
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
This week post collects concise links and takeaways across .NET, AI, Docker, open source security, DevOps, and broader developer topics. From the .NET Conf call for content and Copilot prompts to Docker MCP tooling, container debugging tips, running .NET as WASM, and a fresh look at the 10x engineer idea.
Running .NET in the browser without Blazor (Andrew Lock) - I never thought about it but it's true we can execute .NET code as WASM without Blazor. This tutorial shows you all the code.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
This week's reading notes cover a variety of insightful topics, from enhancing your development environment with dev containers on Windows to prioritizing open-source bugs effectively. You'll also find helpful posts on integrating MFA into your login process, exploring RavenDB's vector search capabilities, and understanding the differences between Ask Mode and Agent Mode in Visual Studio.
Why You Should Incorporate MFA into Your Login Process (Suzanne Scacca) - You think the answer is simple, think again. Nice post that explains the difference between 2FA and MFA and why you should or should not implement one of those
Aspire Dashboard (Joseph Guadagno) - Great deep dive about the Aspire dashboard, learn all the features packed inside it
Open Source
How I Prioritize OSS Bugs (jeremydmiller) - A very instructive post on a real-life issue. It's harder than people think to prioritize. And it may help you write better bug reports...
MCP server integration in Visual Studio (Mark Downie) - Great update! That security stuff is very important and a good example using get up to store your tokens love it
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Creating a Landing Page in Blazor (Héctor Pérez) - Nice tutorial. Not sure I would do the landing page at the root, but other than that, everything is great
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
This week's collection of interesting articles and resources covers AI development, DevOps practices, and open source tools. From GitHub Copilot customization to local AI deployments and containerization best practices, here are the highlights worth your attention.
Top 5 MCP Server Best Practices (Ivan Pedrazas) - mCP server is a very hot topic, thinking about riding your own, here are five best practices to make sure you will be successful.
Containerize Your Apps with Ask Gordon (Steve Buchanan) - I already have Docker desktop on my Windows pc, I should definitely give Gordon a try more to come
DevOps
Local Deploy with Bicep (Sam Cogan) - A perfect short story, I'll explain why the hell bicep can now deploy locally and how to do it
Open Source
Introducing OpenCLI (Patrik Svensson) - A standard that describes CLI so both humans and agents can understand how it works. Love it!
Welcome to Reading Notes #653 another packed edition of insights, tools, and updates from the tech world! This week's roundup dives into legendary engineering wisdom, AI controversies, and the latest innovations in Docker, Azure, and VS Code. Whether you're exploring MCP, refining your scripting skills, or gearing up for the newest Azure Developer CLI release, there's something here for every developer.
Let’s get into it!
Cloud
Azure Developer CLI (azd) - June 2025 (Kristen Womack) - Love that tool, great updates, so many new features and improvements in this version, very looking forward to try all of them, turning them all
AI
Publishing AI models to Docker Hub (Kevin Wittek) - Running model locally is a lot of people are looking forward to it, so this is good news can't wait to try it
Welcome to another edition of my reading notes! This week I've come across some interesting articles spanning from programming decisions to career tips and AI innovations. Hope you find something valuable in this collection.
Programming
Why we built our startup in C# (Sam Cox) - I really like those true-story blog posts; they teach us about the thought process and the reason behind a decision.
It wasn’t the idea that failed: it was the execution (Salma Alam-Naylor) - Even though I feel like I'm missing a few points about sigma and new stuff coming up in 2025, this post is an amazing memory of our past in terms of evolution in the web industry
Thriving After a Layoff: The First 30 Days (scrappy girl project) - A friend of mine shared with me this post, and I think it will help me in the upcoming days. So here I am sharing so more can benefit from it
Books
The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins) - Stop wasting energy on things you can’t control. It something we all know, but probably forgot the power if it. Let go is hard, but it works in so many scenario. In this book Mel explains how to make it works, and how to use it with a let me action.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Welcome to this week's reading notes! Dive into the latest on Microsoft's new AI chat template, explore Docker's MCP CLI, learn about integrating AI into .NET applications, and discover how to automate .NET MAUI library publishing with GitHub Actions.
Whether you're interested in AI advancements, programming techniques, or DevOps practices, there's something valuable waiting for you below.
MsDevMtl Meetup - Uno
Suggestion of the week
Exploring the new AI chat template (Andrew Lock) - This new .NET template looks pretty useful and has a lot of components already baked in. This post explains those and shows how to customize it for our usage.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
This post is a collection of my latest reading notes, highlighting interesting articles and resources on AI, programming, databases, and more. Each link includes a brief summary of what I found valuable or noteworthy.
Help yourself to thrive (Salma) - The human body is an extraordinary machine, extremely strong and conciliant, but it also requires a fine turning. Great post, we must learn from it.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Welcome to this week's collection of fascinating reads across cloud computing, AI, and programming! As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, I've gathered some of the most insightful articles that caught my attention. From securing MCP servers to exploring Rust, there's something here for every tech enthusiast.
Dive in and discover what's new in our rapidly changing digital landscape.
When ASP.NET Core Identity Is No Longer Enough (Andrea Chiarelli) - Authentication and authorization have an important place in our Apps. This post shares details about how things work and the different processes.
New Docker Extension for Visual Studio Code (Remy Suen) - This extension was already a must, they made it better, it's a must must! But seriously give it a try and try it by yourself.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Welcome to this week's reading notes! I've found some great articles that caught my eye - from security tips for MCP servers to exciting updates in Rust and AI. Whether you're into cloud services, programming tools, or wondering about the future of coding with AI, there's something here for you.
Let's dive in!
Programming
The Aspire Compiler (David Fowler) - I really appreciate Aspire. It's one of the tools that completely changed my experience as a developer. Learning more about it is, without a doubt, interesting.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
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