JC
James ChiaTech Lead · Builder
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Curated Tools & Daily Drivers.

The exact software, coding agents, and cloud platforms I rely on to design, code, and deploy nine live web applications.

AI Coding Agents & Harnesses

OpenCode

Favorite Daily Driver

Open-source AI coding agent and model harness

An open-source terminal coding assistant and harness that enables flexible multi-model switching, custom agents, and high-velocity development without vendor lock-in.

Why I Use It:Gives complete control over agent system instructions, local file tools, and API endpoints like DeepSeek and local models.
Official Resource

Claude Code

Architecture & Refactoring

Anthropic’s agentic command-line interface

Anthropic’s terminal tool that reads repositories, edits codebases with high contextual understanding, and handles complex multi-file engineering tasks.

Why I Use It:Exceptional reasoning on large codebases, precise refactoring, and deterministic tool discipline with Sonnet 3.5 & Opus.
Official Resource

OpenAI Developer Platform

Structured APIs

GPT-4o, o1/o3 reasoning models & structured outputs

Provides high-throughput API endpoints for structured JSON schemas, function calling, vision parsing, and frontier reasoning.

Why I Use It:Reliable strict schema adherence for workflow automation pipelines and OCR vision parsing in apps like Professor Turtle.
Official Resource

Cloud, Deployment & Infrastructure

Zeabur

Primary Hosting Platform

Frictionless container and serverless platform

Modern hosting platform for full-stack apps, Node.js, Go, Python, and PostgreSQL databases with dedicated Singapore servers.

Why I Use It:Powers all 9+ of my independent web apps with Git integration, custom domains, and automated SSL in seconds.
Official Resource

GitHub

Version Control

Source control, actions & automated CI/CD

The foundation for version control, issue tracking, and automated deployment triggers across my projects.

Why I Use It:Reliable source of truth for both open-source public repos and private engineering repositories.
Official Resource

Docker

Containerization

Container standard for reproducible environments

Standardized container packaging for Go and Node.js backend services before deploying to production servers.

Why I Use It:Eliminates "works on my machine" discrepancies between local development and Singapore production nodes.
Official Resource

Modern Web Engineering

Astro

Site Engine

Content-driven web framework with zero-JS by default

The modern static-first framework used to build this personal website and blog.

Why I Use It:Zero runtime JavaScript by default, blazing fast performance, and first-class Markdown/MDX content support.
Official Resource

Tailwind CSS

Design System

Utility-first styling framework

Provides rapid UI composition with custom design tokens for the Singapore Blue Hour theme.

Why I Use It:Keeps styling cohesive, responsive, and maintainable without bloated stylesheet cascades.
Official Resource

Fastify & Socket.io

Multiplayer Engine

High-performance Node.js server & real-time websockets

The backend engine powering Puzzle Arena for instant room synchronization and bot play.

Why I Use It:Low overhead, high throughput, and rock-solid WebSocket reliability for competitive real-time puzzle games.
Official Resource

Want to learn how I set up coding agents?

Read my practical breakdown on structuring agent rules, tool boundaries, and verification tests.

Read Coding Agents Guide →