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Make your AGENTS.md a table of contents

John Long
/AI/Mar 2026
Most AGENTS.md files try to do too much. Treat yours as a table of contents — link to essential docs, let your LLM know where to look, and keep the file itself short and scannable.
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The hidden cost of remote MCPs

John Long
/AI/Mar 2026
Remote MCPs add a round-trip tax every time your AI needs context. Local Markdown files are faster, cheaper, and more reliable. Here's why that matters.
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Introducing ContextStore: a native Mac app for context repositories

John Long
/Side Projects · AI/Mar 2026
Poor AI output is usually a context problem, not a prompting problem. ContextStore is a native Mac app that makes it easy for anyone on your team to build and manage a Markdown-based context repository.
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Why I built my own comment system instead of reaching for Disqus

John Long
/AI · Side Projects/Mar 2026
The build vs. buy equation has radically shifted. I built a full comment system for my blog in a few hours with AI — moderation, magic link auth, spam protection — and I own every piece of it.
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Give your AI the full picture with a context repository

John Long
/AI/Mar 2026
Poor AI output usually isn't a prompting problem, it's a context problem. A context repository gives your AI the business knowledge it needs to make good decisions. Here's how to build one.
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Introducing Quiddity: generate essential skills for your dev workflow

John Long
/Side Projects · AI/Mar 2026
Quiddity interviews you about your tools and process, then generates custom /new-issue, /next-task, and /approve skills tailored to how you actually work. One install, one setup command, and you're off.
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Build a /new-issue skill and stop writing issues by hand

John Long
/AI · Workflow/Feb 2026
The final post in my series on skills for dev workflow. A /new-issue skill lets you describe a bug or feature in a sentence and get back a well-structured issue with wireframes and acceptance criteria — better than most people write by hand.
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Extracting sub-skills from agent skills

John Long
/AI · Workflow/Feb 2026
As your agent skills grow, some parts want to be their own thing. Here's how I used a simple prompt to extract a standalone /approve skill from my /next-task skill — and why thinking of skills like functions leads to better workflows.
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Building a /next‑task agent skill

John Long
/AI · Workflow/Feb 2026
A step-by-step guide to building a /next-task agent skill that pulls from your issue tracker, manages branches, implements changes, and opens PRs. Customize it for your own tools — Linear or Jira, GitHub or GitLab.
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How I manage my dev workflow with three Agent skills

John Long
/AI · Workflow/Feb 2026
One of the most exciting things about LLMs is their ability to do useful things that would be hard to script in the traditional sense. Skills take this further, letting you build intelligent workflows that handle the messy, context-dependent parts of product development.
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About 32pixels

John W. Long

Hi, I'm John Long, Head of Design at Gierd.com. Outside of work I like to build things like Radiant CMS and Zest Icons. I write here about design, software development, and what I'm learning about AI.

Recent posts

March 2026
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People I follow

  • Adam Stacoviak

    Founder of Changelog, podcaster for software developers.

  • Alexander Kohlhofer

    Designer exploring the intersection of design, technology, and creativity.

  • Chad Bercea

    Designer and developer creating interactive 3D visualizations and UI concepts.

  • Chris Coyier

    Co-founder of CodePen and creator of CSS-Tricks.

  • Dan Cederholm

    Co-founder of Dribbble, author, and type designer.

  • David Heinemeier Hansson

    Creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of 37signals.

  • Josh W. Comeau

    Software developer and educator.

  • Matt Pocock

    TypeScript educator and author of Total TypeScript.

  • Michael Lee

    Software engineering leader, blogger, and mentor.

  • Nathan Smith

    Designer and developer focused on quality web craft.

  • Robert Evans

    AI strategy and thinking better with technology.

  • Shaun Moynihan

    Product designer specializing in design systems and brand strategy.

32pixels

32pixels is the software design studio of John W. Long, creator of ContextStore, Zest Icons, and Radiant CMS.

Handcrafted by robots. Who am I kidding, really?!

32pixels

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