Blogs on Kristoffer.dev

The macOS Apps I Actually Keep

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:30:00 +0200

Itsycal, Rectangle, Obsidian, Raycast and Stats. Five apps that stay on every Mac I use.

A Claude Code Status Line That Tells Me When I'll Run Out

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0200

My Claude Code status line is now a small dashboard: weather from my own CLI, rate limits that know my pace, and a bill that is right. Bash and jq, about 50 ms a refresh.

Installing Oh My Zsh on Linux and macOS

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0200

A up-to-date, copy-paste guide to installing and configuring Zsh + Oh My Zsh on Linux (Ubuntu/Debian) and macOS — with themes, must-have plugins, and Nerd Fonts.

CLI-first AI Agents: Why I Build Small Tools Instead of MCP Servers

Fri, 15 May 2026 10:00:00 +0200

How I build small, isolated CLI tools in Go for AI agents to operate in — and why I prefer this over MCP.

Building a Hardened Linux Environment for Your OpenClaw AI Agent

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0100

A practical, opinionated guide to running an autonomous AI assistant on a dedicated home lab server — with proper isolation, network control, and custom tooling.

Goals

You want a dedicated, always-on Linux machine that runs an AI agent (OpenClaw) with the following properties:

Isolated execution environment — The agent runs under a dedicated Linux user (agent-openclaw) with strict permission boundaries. It cannot escalate to root, cannot access other users’ data, and operates within well-defined filesystem and process boundaries.

Creating Your First Homebrew Tap: A Complete Guide

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0100

Learn how to create and publish your own Homebrew tap to distribute your CLI tools and applications to macOS and Linux users.

Spark from NDC Oslo: Events as Internal APIs

Wed, 28 May 2025 09:00:00 +0200

A spark of insight from James Eastham's NDC Oslo talk: Treat your events like internal APIs.

Link Sparks: The Power of Ten - Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 09:00:00 +0200

NASA's ten rules for safety-critical code, and ThePrimeagen reading them out loud. Simple control flow, bounded loops, no surprises.

Obsidian + GitHub: Safe .gitignore Setup

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0100

Syncing Obsidian vaults with Git works great until machine-specific files create conflicts or you accidentally commit sensitive notes. This guide gives you two battle-tested .gitignore configurations and a safety checklist to avoid common pitfalls.

Quick take: Use the Strict setup to eliminate config conflicts entirely. Add .gitattributes for cleaner diffs. Keep your repo private unless you’re building a public knowledge base.

Recommended `.gitignore`

A) Minimal (Keep plugin settings, drop noise)

Keeps plugin settings and config across devices. Excludes cache and workspace files.

Managing Git Submodules: A Quick Guide

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0100

Learn how to set up, update, and manage Git submodules efficiently, with practical examples for developers.

Getting Started with Neovim: From Install to LazyVim

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 09:00:00 +0100

Neovim on a new machine, the way I actually set it up: one command for the install, LazyVim for the config, twenty keys to survive the first week — and a practice lap you can run on this page.

Link Sparks: Essential Knowledge for Programmers

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 09:00:00 +0100

A curated GitHub list of the things every programmer should know — algorithms, memory, security and clean code, in one place.

Getting Started with Python Environments

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +0200

Getting Started with Python Environments: Conda, venv, and Installing Dependencies

Managing Python projects efficiently requires a solid understanding of virtual environments and dependency management. This guide introduces you to two popular tools—conda and venv—and shows you how to set up a project and install dependencies from a requirements.txt file.

Why Use Virtual Environments?

Virtual environments allow you to:

Isolate dependencies for each project.
Avoid conflicts between package versions.
Maintain a clean global Python installation.

Both conda and Python’s built-in venv module are excellent tools for creating virtual environments.

How to Check and Clean Up Disk Space on Linux Servers (Ubuntu)

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0200

Running out of disk space on your Ubuntu server can cause performance issues and prevent applications from running properly. This guide provides straightforward steps to help you check disk space usage and clean up your server effectively.

Check Current Disk Space Usage

To see how much disk space is currently being used, open your terminal and run:

bash

df -h

df displays disk space usage.
-h makes the output human-readable.

This command shows disk usage for all mounted filesystems. Look at the Use% column to identify filesystems with high usage.

How to Resize a Filesystem on Hetzner Cloud VM

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:43:35 +0100

If you’ve recently upgraded the disk size of a volume on Hetzner Cloud, you’ll find that the additional space is not automatically available for use. This is because the filesystem on the disk needs to be resized to utilize the new space. Here’s a straightforward guide on how to resize your filesystem on a Hetzner Cloud virtual machine (VM).

Link Up Your Life: Symlinks in Linux and Windows

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 07:48:44 +0200

Symlinks (symbolic links) are like the ultimate shortcuts in the world of operating systems. They help you point to files and folders from multiple locations without creating duplicates. Let’s dive into how you can create and manage symlinks, making your life easier whether you’re navigating the Linux terminal or the Windows Command Prompt.

Linux: Creating and Managing Symlinks

Making a Symlink

In Linux, creating a symlink is as simple as striking a few keys:

Add Private SSH Key(s)

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:37:36 +0200

Setting Up SSH Keys on a New Installation

New installations often require setting up SSH keys. Here’s a quick guide on how I configured my new computer with existing SSH keys that were already generated and installed on a remote server.

Step 1: Copy the Private Key

First, navigate to the SSH directory:

bash

cd ~/.ssh/

Step 2: Set the Correct Access Privileges

It’s important to set the correct read and write permissions for your private key:

Basic git commands

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 19:56:36 +0200

Hey

Here’s just a simple cheatsheet for the most basic git commands.

git init

git add file/files

git status

git commit

git push

git pull

git clone

git branch

https://github.github.com/training-kit/downloads/github-git-cheat-sheet.pdf

Linux Commands

Fri, 20 Oct 2017 17:48:44 +0200

Here are some common Linux commands:

ls - used to list the contents of a directory
cd - used to change the current working directory
mv - used to move or rename files and directories
mkdir - used to create a new directory
rm - used to delete files and directories
chmod - used to change the permissions of a file or directory
sudo - used to execute a command with superuser privileges
apt-get - used to install and manage software packages on Linux systems
grep - used to search for text patterns in files
man - used to display the manual pages for a command

These are just a few examples - there are many more Linux commands that can be used for various tasks.