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The Journal.

Reviews of the tools I use to build for clients, written for the person paying for them. What each tool is, what it costs you, what can go wrong, and whether I’d put it in your business.

Every entry ends with a verdict: Recommend, Use with care or Not yet. No affiliate links, no sponsored reviews.

Fig. J-014 — Guardrail layersSection view

Latest · J-014 · Agentic AI

Letting an AI agent near your inbox: what I check first.

Inbox triage is the job owners ask about most. It’s also where an over-eager agent can do real damage: a reply sent in your name, an attachment forwarded to the wrong person. Before an agent reads a single customer email I put four layers around it, and this entry walks through each in plain English.

Also covered: the three inbox jobs I’m happy to automate today, and the two I still won’t.

Oct 2026 · 7 min read · Verdict: Use with care

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All entries 8 entries

Entry	Title, summary & verdict	Date
J-014	Letting an AI agent near your inbox: what I check first The four guardrails I put in place before any agent reads customer email, and the jobs I still won’t give one. Agentic AIUse with care	Oct 2026 7 min
J-013	Postgres for small businesses: the boring choice, on purpose Why nearly every system I build keeps its data in one well-backed-up database, and what that saves you when you want reports, or a new developer, five years on. Tool reviewRecommend	Sep 2026 6 min
J-012	Self-hosting vs. SaaS: a cost sheet you can fill in yourself A one-page worksheet for deciding whether to run something on your own server or keep paying per seat. Includes the costs people forget: your time, backups, and the day it breaks. InfrastructureRecommend	Aug 2026 9 min
J-011	Running a language model on your own hardware: when it’s worth it Local models have got much better. They’re still slower and less capable than hosted ones. Here’s the short list of jobs where keeping data in the building wins anyway. Agentic AIUse with care	Jul 2026 8 min
J-010	htmx: web apps without the heavy JavaScript Why a lot of business software doesn’t need a single-page app, and how a simpler approach keeps build costs and future maintenance down. Tool reviewRecommend	Jun 2026 5 min
J-009	Backups you’ve never restored aren’t backups What a restore drill looks like, how long one takes for a typical small business, and the questions to ask whoever looks after your systems now. InfrastructureRecommend	May 2026 6 min
J-008	“Fully autonomous” agents: why I’m not selling them yet Agents that plan and act without a check-in are impressive in demos. In a business that can’t afford a bad week, a human approval step is still worth its small cost. Agentic AINot yet	Apr 2026 7 min
J-007	Uptime Kuma: knowing your site is down before your customers do A small, free monitoring tool I install for nearly every client. What it watches, where it sends alerts, and its limits. Tool reviewRecommend	Mar 2026 4 min

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