Elijah Potter
@elijahpotter.dev
I've been experimenting with using Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate rules for my programming language, Weir, and I'm really excited about the potential.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/gen...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/gen...
Generating Weir Code with LLMs
Some experimentation shows that LLMs are extremely effective at understanding and generating DSL code.
elijahpotter.dev
December 22, 2025 at 8:17 PM
I've been experimenting with using Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate rules for my programming language, Weir, and I'm really excited about the potential.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/gen...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/gen...
I've been tweaking the keywords to make them more descriptive and less clunky – I replaced "declare" and "set" with "let" and "expr," and you can see the changes in the example code.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/upd...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/upd...
Updates on the Weir Language
In [my last blog post](./building_the_weir_language), I described the why, what, and how of the Weir programming language. Before signing off for the day, I just wanted to give a few updates on the We...
elijahpotter.dev
December 18, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I've been tweaking the keywords to make them more descriptive and less clunky – I replaced "declare" and "set" with "let" and "expr," and you can see the changes in the example code.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/upd...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/upd...
I'm excited to share that Harper can now apply title case to text! It's a simple but useful feature, especially for ensuring consistency in titles like the ones on this blog.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
Harper Can Apply Titlecase
In case you didn't know: Harper can convert text to title case! This has been around for a long time, but we haven't really talked about it publicly.
elijahpotter.dev
December 17, 2025 at 4:13 AM
I'm excited to share that Harper can now apply title case to text! It's a simple but useful feature, especially for ensuring consistency in titles like the ones on this blog.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
I've been tinkering with a new language for expressing grammatical rules, with the goal of making it easier for people to create and share style guides that Harper can understand.
If you all have any opinions on syntax or anything, let me know!
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bui...
If you all have any opinions on syntax or anything, let me know!
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bui...
Building the Weir Language
A domain-specific language for describing patterns in natural language.
elijahpotter.dev
December 16, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I've been tinkering with a new language for expressing grammatical rules, with the goal of making it easier for people to create and share style guides that Harper can understand.
If you all have any opinions on syntax or anything, let me know!
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bui...
If you all have any opinions on syntax or anything, let me know!
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bui...
Reposted by Elijah Potter
I was looking for grammar/spell-check language servers to use in Neovim and came across Harper (writewithharper.com)
Turns out it also has extensions for Firefox/Chrome. I don't use Grammarly, but for people who do, could be a nicer, more private alternative — it's local-only and open-source.
Turns out it also has extensions for Firefox/Chrome. I don't use Grammarly, but for people who do, could be a nicer, more private alternative — it's local-only and open-source.
Harper | Privacy-First Offline Grammar Checker
Harper checks your writing instantly—fast, lightweight and utterly private—so you can polish every clause without surrendering a single keystroke.
writewithharper.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:13 PM
I was looking for grammar/spell-check language servers to use in Neovim and came across Harper (writewithharper.com)
Turns out it also has extensions for Firefox/Chrome. I don't use Grammarly, but for people who do, could be a nicer, more private alternative — it's local-only and open-source.
Turns out it also has extensions for Firefox/Chrome. I don't use Grammarly, but for people who do, could be a nicer, more private alternative — it's local-only and open-source.
Stop Paying for Grammarly: 3 Free Alternatives in 2025
I left Grammarly, and my writing got better.
medium.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:09 PM
It seems like Harper and @ellipsus.com share a lot of core values. Perhaps we could collaborate on something?
December 8, 2025 at 3:16 PM
It seems like Harper and @ellipsus.com share a lot of core values. Perhaps we could collaborate on something?
Today, we published Harper's 1.0.0 release. It's a huge milestone, and I'd like to discuss why it took so long, why we're doing it now, and what's next for the project.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
Harper Turns 1.0 Today
Harper finally releases a `1.0.0`
elijahpotter.dev
December 3, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Today, we published Harper's 1.0.0 release. It's a huge milestone, and I'd like to discuss why it took so long, why we're doing it now, and what's next for the project.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
Reposted by Elijah Potter
Our very own @ma.tt joined the TBPN crew to close out #StateOfTheWord yesterday. They talked about WordPress 6.9, open source, @beeper, and how AI is changing the web. Did you miss it? Check it out now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBQh...
December 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Our very own @ma.tt joined the TBPN crew to close out #StateOfTheWord yesterday. They talked about WordPress 6.9, open source, @beeper, and how AI is changing the web. Did you miss it? Check it out now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBQh...
If you had shown this article to the Elijah Potter from a year ago, he would have agreed with most of what it says. I was of the strong opinion that collaboration was fundamentally counterproductive to getting sh*t done. Since then, I've completely changed my tune.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/re:...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/re:...
Re Collaboration Sucks
Why collaboration still matters when kept intentional.
elijahpotter.dev
November 18, 2025 at 8:45 PM
If you had shown this article to the Elijah Potter from a year ago, he would have agreed with most of what it says. I was of the strong opinion that collaboration was fundamentally counterproductive to getting sh*t done. Since then, I've completely changed my tune.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/re:...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/re:...
Reposted by Elijah Potter
Harper is in Cursor and VS Code · A grammar checker for your code editor · ilo.im/162w5w by Elijah Potter #Development #Extensions
Harper Is In Cursor And Visual Studio Code
A boon if you comment your code.
ilo.im
March 21, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Harper is in Cursor and VS Code · A grammar checker for your code editor · ilo.im/162w5w by Elijah Potter #Development #Extensions
Reposted by Elijah Potter
“We adopted #rustlang for its security and are seeing a 1000x reduction in memory safety vulnerability density ... with Rust changes having a 4x lower rollback rate and spending 25% less time in code review, the safer path is now also the faster one.”
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
Rust in Android: move fast and fix things
Posted by Jeff Vander Stoep, Android Last year, we wrote about why a memory safety strategy that focuses on vulnerability prevention in ...
security.googleblog.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:52 PM
“We adopted #rustlang for its security and are seeing a 1000x reduction in memory safety vulnerability density ... with Rust changes having a 4x lower rollback rate and spending 25% less time in code review, the safer path is now also the faster one.”
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
Reposted by Elijah Potter
For the orphans of Grammarly, I present Harper.
Harper is a free open-source English grammar checker.
It runs on-device, that means you have 100% certainty it doesn't violate your copyright by training large language models.
FUCK🖕AI
writewithharper.com
Harper is a free open-source English grammar checker.
It runs on-device, that means you have 100% certainty it doesn't violate your copyright by training large language models.
FUCK🖕AI
writewithharper.com
Harper | Privacy-First Offline Grammar Checker
Harper checks your writing instantly—fast, lightweight and utterly private—so you can polish every clause without surrendering a single keystroke.
writewithharper.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
For the orphans of Grammarly, I present Harper.
Harper is a free open-source English grammar checker.
It runs on-device, that means you have 100% certainty it doesn't violate your copyright by training large language models.
FUCK🖕AI
writewithharper.com
Harper is a free open-source English grammar checker.
It runs on-device, that means you have 100% certainty it doesn't violate your copyright by training large language models.
FUCK🖕AI
writewithharper.com
Reposted by Elijah Potter
I find it very cool that harper (the grammar / prose) can correctly identify "a" vs "an" with initialisms
November 14, 2025 at 12:47 AM
I find it very cool that harper (the grammar / prose) can correctly identify "a" vs "an" with initialisms
I had the incredible opportunity to speak at WordCamp U.S. at Matt's suggestion. I met a number of wonderful, kind, and inviting people. It was my first WordCamp and first conference talk, so I was naturally nervous. The community made it feel easy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-jY...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-jY...
WordCamp US 2025: Elijah Potter "Your Words, Your Brain, Your Device"
YouTube video by WordPress
www.youtube.com
September 11, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I had the incredible opportunity to speak at WordCamp U.S. at Matt's suggestion. I met a number of wonderful, kind, and inviting people. It was my first WordCamp and first conference talk, so I was naturally nervous. The community made it feel easy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-jY...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-jY...
I've been working on making the UI for grammar checking better, for everyone.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bet...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bet...
Better Interfaces for Grammar Checking
Grammar checking can be cumbersome, especially when it’s sloth gets in the way of your thinking. That’s part of why so many people prefer Harper over Grammarly or LanguageTool.
elijahpotter.dev
July 29, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I've been working on making the UI for grammar checking better, for everyone.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bet...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/bet...
Lots of cloud providers like to brag about being able to scale with their users. I like to brag about not having to scale at all.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/loc...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/loc...
Local First Software Is Easier to Scale
The title of this post is somewhat misleading. Local-first software rarely needs to be scaled at all.
elijahpotter.dev
July 18, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Lots of cloud providers like to brag about being able to scale with their users. I like to brag about not having to scale at all.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/loc...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/loc...
I try to read at least two books a month. Whenever I have a chance, I then review the books to solidify the ideas in my mind.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/the...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/the...
The Books I Have Read Since April 2025
It has been a slow couple of months for my reading habit. Although, now that I've said that out loud, I realize I say that every time.
elijahpotter.dev
July 5, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I try to read at least two books a month. Whenever I have a chance, I then review the books to solidify the ideas in my mind.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/the...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/the...
I've been experimenting with Transformation-based Learning, which is an alternative to neural-network-based approaches for machine learning.
It's remarkably effective.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/tra...
It's remarkably effective.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/tra...
Transformation Based Learning
Harper is currently undergoing some pretty radical changes when it comes to its language analysis. These improvements will improve the output of our existing rule engine, in addition to making entirel...
elijahpotter.dev
June 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I've been experimenting with Transformation-based Learning, which is an alternative to neural-network-based approaches for machine learning.
It's remarkably effective.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/tra...
It's remarkably effective.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/tra...
I recently started testing Harper's Chrome extension with @microsoft.com's Playwright—it was easier than I thought:
elijahpotter.dev/articles/int...
#quality
elijahpotter.dev/articles/int...
#quality
Integration Testing Thousands of Sites with Playwright
There are a great variety text editors on the web, each used in a different context. That's a beautiful thing, but unfortunately our users expect Harper to work in all of these places seamlessly.
elijahpotter.dev
May 23, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I recently started testing Harper's Chrome extension with @microsoft.com's Playwright—it was easier than I thought:
elijahpotter.dev/articles/int...
#quality
elijahpotter.dev/articles/int...
#quality
I love that Harper's core engine is so portable. It empowers devs to go out and build integrations on their own. For example, give SpellBolt a whirl!
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
Harper for Firefox Through Spellbolt
SpellBolt is a Firefox extension that delivers Harper's fantastic grammar checking straight into your Firefox browser.
elijahpotter.dev
May 20, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I love that Harper's core engine is so portable. It empowers devs to go out and build integrations on their own. For example, give SpellBolt a whirl!
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/har...
Reposted by Elijah Potter
I found an offline alternative to Grammarly that you can run in Obsidian: https://lifehacker.com/tech/harper-offline-alternative-to-grammarly
Harper Is an Offline Alternative to Grammarly for Obsidian
Obsidian is my favorite productivity tool. I use it for all of my writing, as a journaling app, and to replace multiple productivity tools. There's a big downside, though: no grammar checking tool.…
lifehacker.com
April 24, 2025 at 9:24 PM
I found an offline alternative to Grammarly that you can run in Obsidian: https://lifehacker.com/tech/harper-offline-alternative-to-grammarly
We encountered a good many technical hurdles when building out support for the most visited sites on the internet.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/put...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/put...
Putting Harper in your Browser
When our users install Harper, they should expect it to work anywhere they do.
elijahpotter.dev
May 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM
We encountered a good many technical hurdles when building out support for the most visited sites on the internet.
elijahpotter.dev/articles/put...
elijahpotter.dev/articles/put...