David Crawshaw
@crawshaw.io
ceo exe.dev, tailscale co-founder, programmer
exe.dev is still behind a credit card for now while we develop some more techniques for dealing with people who abuse systems (even a credit card doesn't entirely work). But if you are a human who wants an invite code to skip the CC for a month, happy to DM you one.
February 11, 2026 at 12:43 AM
exe.dev is still behind a credit card for now while we develop some more techniques for dealing with people who abuse systems (even a credit card doesn't entirely work). But if you are a human who wants an invite code to skip the CC for a month, happy to DM you one.
This resonates. It has been more than 15 years since I worked on a program where I counted L2 cache misses. I have *never* understood how the garbage collector in my SSD firmware works. But I could pretend I understood it, because write(2) still does its thing.
I Started Programming When I Was 7. I'm 50 Now, and the Thing I Loved Has Changed | James Randall
I still love developing but the shifts that AI have brought are tectonic and are forcing me to re-evaluate my own relationship to building things
www.jamesdrandall.com
February 10, 2026 at 6:14 PM
This resonates. It has been more than 15 years since I worked on a program where I counted L2 cache misses. I have *never* understood how the garbage collector in my SSD firmware works. But I could pretend I understood it, because write(2) still does its thing.
The exe.dev January update is here! Only a week late. (Servers were on fire.)
blog.exe.dev/jan26-update
blog.exe.dev/jan26-update
February 8, 2026 at 5:51 PM
The exe.dev January update is here! Only a week late. (Servers were on fire.)
blog.exe.dev/jan26-update
blog.exe.dev/jan26-update
Reposted by David Crawshaw
"the best software for an agent is whatever is best for a programmer" - @crawshaw.io
crawshaw.io/blog/eight-m...
crawshaw.io/blog/eight-m...
crawshaw - 2026-02-08
crawshaw.io
February 7, 2026 at 8:34 PM
"the best software for an agent is whatever is best for a programmer" - @crawshaw.io
crawshaw.io/blog/eight-m...
crawshaw.io/blog/eight-m...
It has been a while since I wrote about agents, so here are my latest thoughts. I have a lot less time than I did eight months ago, so this is far more informal. crawshaw.io/blog/eight-m...
February 7, 2026 at 7:23 PM
It has been a while since I wrote about agents, so here are my latest thoughts. I have a lot less time than I did eight months ago, so this is far more informal. crawshaw.io/blog/eight-m...
One thing that has changed dramatically about running systems in the last five years is we can easily answer any question about the system in less time than it takes to discuss.
No more meetings where we theorize about a number We can just have a program written to find it.
No more meetings where we theorize about a number We can just have a program written to find it.
February 5, 2026 at 9:48 PM
One thing that has changed dramatically about running systems in the last five years is we can easily answer any question about the system in less time than it takes to discuss.
No more meetings where we theorize about a number We can just have a program written to find it.
No more meetings where we theorize about a number We can just have a program written to find it.
Reposted by David Crawshaw
ttl.sh is very cool. Limited-duration container registry, perfect for testing things!
ttl.sh - Anonymous & Ephemeral OCI Registry
Free, anonymous, and ephemeral OCI registry. No sign-up required. Push your images and they expire automatically.
ttl.sh
February 5, 2026 at 9:43 PM
ttl.sh is very cool. Limited-duration container registry, perfect for testing things!
Lots of fun gory details in this blog post.
February 3, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Lots of fun gory details in this blog post.
"Stripe Sigma" (an SQL interface) is a good idea, given that Stripe is a DB. But if you gave me the snapshot as a SQLite file I could download, that would be far more useful than your UI or API.
February 1, 2026 at 4:57 AM
"Stripe Sigma" (an SQL interface) is a good idea, given that Stripe is a DB. But if you gave me the snapshot as a SQLite file I could download, that would be far more useful than your UI or API.
Someone could start a restaurant in SF called "TBD" and get a lot of default business from my calendar.
January 29, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Someone could start a restaurant in SF called "TBD" and get a lot of default business from my calendar.
TIL (from LWN) that linux has an entire sophisticated file system just for read-only data, EROFS. Linux never ceases to surprise me.
January 27, 2026 at 6:02 PM
TIL (from LWN) that linux has an entire sophisticated file system just for read-only data, EROFS. Linux never ceases to surprise me.
What is most interesting about this to me: I used the screen record feature on my phone which made a 7min video. I wanted it to fast forward, but I lack any of the skills required. So I scp'ed the .mp4 to my VM and then asked Shelley to figure it out. It used a mighty ffmpeg script beyond my ken.
January 26, 2026 at 7:42 PM
What is most interesting about this to me: I used the screen record feature on my phone which made a 7min video. I wanted it to fast forward, but I lack any of the skills required. So I scp'ed the .mp4 to my VM and then asked Shelley to figure it out. It used a mighty ffmpeg script beyond my ken.
My new favorite Ghostty feature: if you accidentally close a window, spam Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z. The window comes back with all processes running.
January 26, 2026 at 2:07 PM
My new favorite Ghostty feature: if you accidentally close a window, spam Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z. The window comes back with all processes running.
I wanted to try out Clawdbot, so I set it up on a fresh VM.
January 26, 2026 at 1:57 PM
I wanted to try out Clawdbot, so I set it up on a fresh VM.
Is MCP still a thing, or is everyone using doc files now?
January 24, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Is MCP still a thing, or is everyone using doc files now?
We have to get on top of everything before we can write up all the things we have built for exe.dev, but this one comes up the most so I blogged about it: SSH has no Host header. So how do we proxy SSH?
We Do Things with DNS. blog.exe.dev/ssh-host-hea...
We Do Things with DNS. blog.exe.dev/ssh-host-hea...
January 22, 2026 at 7:35 PM
We have to get on top of everything before we can write up all the things we have built for exe.dev, but this one comes up the most so I blogged about it: SSH has no Host header. So how do we proxy SSH?
We Do Things with DNS. blog.exe.dev/ssh-host-hea...
We Do Things with DNS. blog.exe.dev/ssh-host-hea...
transformers: deliberately quadratic
January 22, 2026 at 3:09 AM
transformers: deliberately quadratic
Added an HN testimonial to our website.
January 21, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Added an HN testimonial to our website.
I didn't post about this when it came out because I was too busy trying to keep our servers online, but this is the story of how Sketch became Shelley on exe.dev: blog.exe.dev/shelley
Goodbye Sketch, Hello Shelley! - exe.dev blog
Introducing Shelley, exe.dev's mobile-friendly, web-based, multi-modal coding agent.
blog.exe.dev
January 20, 2026 at 2:34 PM
I didn't post about this when it came out because I was too busy trying to keep our servers online, but this is the story of how Sketch became Shelley on exe.dev: blog.exe.dev/shelley
Reposted by David Crawshaw
So it turns out WordPress often blocks Feedly for weeks at a time. Signed up for an "RSS Proxy Service" but after a free trial it started inserting ads.
Ended up using Shelly from @exe.dev and rage built my own RSS proxy service in about an hour.
bsky.app/profile/laun...
Ended up using Shelly from @exe.dev and rage built my own RSS proxy service in about an hour.
bsky.app/profile/laun...
Wondering if I should just write my own RSS reader rather than playing tech support go between Feedly support and a personally beloved niche outdoors site who's wordpress install is "unreachable".
January 11, 2026 at 4:40 AM
So it turns out WordPress often blocks Feedly for weeks at a time. Signed up for an "RSS Proxy Service" but after a free trial it started inserting ads.
Ended up using Shelly from @exe.dev and rage built my own RSS proxy service in about an hour.
bsky.app/profile/laun...
Ended up using Shelly from @exe.dev and rage built my own RSS proxy service in about an hour.
bsky.app/profile/laun...
Interesting fact of the day, the Berlin airlift brought in 2.3m tons on 278k flights. Two thirds of that was coal.
January 11, 2026 at 3:14 AM
Interesting fact of the day, the Berlin airlift brought in 2.3m tons on 278k flights. Two thirds of that was coal.