Blog
Engineering stories from the edge of learning technology
April 2026 · Infrastructure
Foundry: AWS Infrastructure as AI
boto3 provisioning, CloudFormation-shaped types, drift detection, org-wide inventory, Trusted-Advisor parity, compliance packs, cost, IP space — and 43 MCP tools. One tool, one WebSocket, every AWS concern covered.
Read articleApril 2026 · Engineering
Chirp: Team Chat That Talks to Your Agents
Self-hosted Slack replacement with a first-class bidirectional Claude Code session bridge. 69 MCP tools, fleet integrations, and embeddable chat surfaces.
Read articleApril 2026 · Observability
Six Names for One Observability Story
Vigil, Chronicle, Pulse, Docket, BugReporter, Chirp. Each watches something different. All talk to each other. Together they make one team-of-two observability stack we'd take over Datadog.
Read articleApril 2026 · Sales
Envoy: The Deal-Centric CRM We Finally Wanted
Opportunities as the primary object — not contacts. Multi-pipeline kanban, AI health scoring, forecasts, quoting, commissions, all backed by Tribe + Courier + Cadence + Trellis.
Read articleApril 2026 · Observability
Chronicle: Unified Observability Without the Vendor Tax
Metrics, logs, traces, alerts, incidents, SLOs — all in one platform. OpenTelemetry-native. AI-curated logs. Sonnet 4.6 drafts root-cause before the on-call pages in.
Read articleApril 2026 · Engineering
Codex: Your Team's Knowledge, Always Findable
Why we built a wiki from scratch instead of using Confluence, Notion, or GitBook. Hierarchical pages, version history, wiki-links, and 93 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Productivity
Slate: The Task Manager We Actually Wanted to Use
Master list templates, real-time collaboration, Things 3 import, Packed integration, and 35 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Issue Tracking
Docket: Kanban Issue Tracking with 29 MCP Tools
Hierarchical projects, real-time WebSocket updates, public bug submission API, and autonomous issue resolution via Claude Code.
Read articleApril 2026 · Calendar
Cadence: A Calendar That Understands Natural Language
Natural language event parsing, multi-provider sync across Google, Microsoft, iCloud, and CalDAV, with calendar sets for context switching.
Read articleApril 2026 · Accounting
Trellis: Cloud Accounting Built in an Afternoon
Double-entry bookkeeping, Plaid bank feeds, AI transaction categorization, Stripe payments, 40+ financial reports, and 20 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Communications
Herald: Newsletter Infrastructure You Actually Own
Multi-tenant subscriber platform with automation sequences, double opt-in, SendGrid delivery, and 49 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Engineering
Building renkara.com: Static HTML in the Age of AI
54 pages, WebGL particles, an 18-year timeline with 60+ milestones, 14 tool showcases, and not a single framework. How we built a corporate site that loads in under 2 seconds.
Read articleApril 2026 · Marketing
Beacon: AI-Driven Marketing with 69 MCP Tools
Dual LLM content generation, campaign orchestration, landing page A/B testing, and multi-channel publishing.
Read articleApril 2026 · Productivity
Packed: Reusable List Templates That Generate Working Copies
Build the template once, stamp out instances forever. Weight tracking, nested containers, real-time collaboration, and 24 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Productivity
Fulcrum: Measuring What AI Actually Saves
Leverage factor calculation, decision fatigue assessment, predictive analysis, and 8 MCP tools. We invented this category.
Read articleApril 2026 · Analytics
Pulse: Web Analytics Without the Privacy Trade-Off
Zero cookies, GDPR compliant by design, sub-2 KB tracking script, A/B testing, conversion funnels, and 37 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Monitoring
Vigil: Service Health Monitoring with Audible Alarms
Health check polling, latency sparklines, incident lifecycle management, and uptime summaries across the entire platform.
Read articleApril 2026 · Email
Courier: An Email Client Built on a Proxy Architecture
Backend proxies Gmail, Fastmail, Exchange, and IMAP. Markdown composition, rules engine, LLM classification, and smart folders.
Read articleApril 2026 · Time Tracking
Meridian: Time Tracking and Invoicing for Consultants
Day and week time entry views, expense management, PDF invoice generation, accounts receivable reporting, and 20 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Engineering
16 Tools, One Platform: Building Renkara's Internal Tool Fleet
Why we built every operational tool ourselves, and what happens when 19 applications share authentication, database, cache, and 734 MCP tools.
Read articleApril 2026 · Content Management
Narrative: A Multi-Site Static Site Generator with AI Detection
Incremental builds in 1.5 seconds, semantic search, infrastructure provisioning, and 8 MCP tools for AI integration.
Read articleApril 2026 · Intellectual Property
Dossier: Browsing a Patent Portfolio with AI
Interactive browser for 28 patent filings and 613 claims. AI chat, claim visualization, and plain-language explanations. Local-only deployment.
Read articleMarch 2026 · Patents
27 Patents, 593 Claims, 18 Years
After a journey of nearly 18 years, the AVIAN patent portfolio is complete. 28 filings across 30 branded platform clusters. Over 600 pages and 215 diagrams.
Read articleMarch 2026 · Infrastructure
Four Generations of Cloud: The Evolution of AccelaStudy Cloud
From Parse to Firebase to a custom Node.js stack on AWS and finally to the AVIAN engine. How a flashcard sync service became the backbone of an adaptive learning platform.
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