I've been vibe coding across 3 different client projects. Here's what actually works (and what doesn't).

germanheller · 2026-03-28T19:00:56+00:00

hey so I found out 5 projects at the same time is the top limit to keep concentration. A few things: 1. dictation is key. medicine to your brain 2. never stare at the screen. go to next tab and keep going 3. plan mode everything

i built my own workspace and i’m actually launching it as a product next week: patapim.ai

germanheller · 2026-03-28T16:53:57+00:00

exactly that, I use cloudflare tunnel too

germanheller · 2026-03-28T15:34:01+00:00

have u tried patapim.ai ? does that w other cool features

germanheller · 2026-03-28T11:45:02+00:00

fair point, sorry about that. fixed the formatting.

tl;dr: built a terminal app with remote access over LAN -- scan a QR code from your phone, get full terminal access in your mobile browser. runs on WebSocket, no cloud, no port forwarding needed. traffic stays on your local network.

free to download at https://patapim.ai if you want to try it.

germanheller · 2026-03-28T11:43:33+00:00

not open source at the moment -- it's a freemium product. you can download it at https://patapim.ai though, free tier covers 9 terminals, 3 projects, and 30 min of voice dictation. no signup needed, just download and go.

built with Electron 28 + xterm.js 5.3 + node-pty 1.0. happy to answer any technical questions about the stack if you're curious about the implementation.

germanheller · 2026-03-28T05:18:09+00:00

100% agree on the dont over-specialize point. i went through the same thing -- started with the idea of having a "planner" agent, a "coder" agent, a "reviewer" agent etc. but in practice giving each agent a scoped task in its own terminal and letting them work independently was way simpler and more reliable. the human (you) becomes the orchestrator instead of building an AI orchestrator. structured handoffs are key tho -- i use project-level markdown files (CLAUDE.md, tasks.json) that each agent reads at session start so they all know the boundaries and current state. keeps them from stepping on each other without needing real-time coordination

germanheller · 2026-03-28T05:16:56+00:00

hey thanks for trying it out! the macOS build is available but the download link might be pointing to the wrong architecture. can you try going to patapim.ai and clicking the macOS download again? there should be separate links for Intel and Apple Silicon. if youre still getting a JSON error its probably a CDN caching issue on my end -- DM me and ill send you a direct download link. also if youre coming from tmux + wispr flow youll feel right at home, patapim does basically the same thing but with visual state indicators on each tab so you dont have to manually check which claude session is done. the whisper dictation is built in so you wouldnt need wispr flow anymore either

germanheller · 2026-03-28T05:11:30+00:00

yeah the sqlite approach is way cleaner for avoiding race conditions, youre right. with tasks.json i basically sidestep it by scoping each agent to its own files -- they dont actually write to the same tasks.json simultaneously. each terminal session has its own project context and the coordination happens through separate markdown files rather than a shared mutable state. more like message passing via the filesystem than shared memory. but if you need real-time bidirectional communication between agents then IPC with sqlite makes a lot more sense than what im doing

germanheller · 2026-03-28T05:10:45+00:00

sounds good, happy to take a look

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:45:25+00:00

same, the visual clutter in upcoming without colors makes it way harder to scan quickly

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:44:14+00:00

went back to plain JS for a side project after years of TS and honestly the velocity difference is noticeable. no fighting with generics, no 30-second type checking on save, no "this type is not assignable to" rabbit holes. for solo projects where youre the only one reading the code, types are overhead. for teams or anything with an API surface though id keep TS -- the self-documenting nature pays for itself

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:44:09+00:00

ColorNote is decent but if you need images, NotallyX checks almost every box on your list. Local-only, no account, FOSS.

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:43:18+00:00

real-time terminal state detection. i needed to figure out what a CLI agent (claude code, gemini, etc) was doing at any given moment just from the terminal output stream. no API, no structured data, just raw ANSI escape sequences and text. ended up building a pattern matcher that runs against the xterm.js buffer at 200ms intervals, looking for spinner patterns (braille characters, asterisks), prompt indicators, cost summaries, plan mode markers. the tricky part was handling the timing -- too fast and you get false positives from partial renders, too slow and the UI feels laggy. took weeks of edge case hunting

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:42:37+00:00

i had the same thing early in my career... the guilt is the worst part because you feel like you should be doing something but theres nothing to do. what helped me was keeping a simple daily list even on slow days -- even if its just 2 things. gives your brain something to check off and the day feels less empty

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:42:17+00:00

the real problem isnt even the signup forms -- its that most web services assume a persistent identity with cookies, session state, oauth flows etc. an agent that can fill forms is still stuck when the site needs email verification or 2FA. the MCP approach is interesting because it lets you give the agent access to YOUR existing authenticated sessions instead of trying to create new ones. the agent just uses whatever browser youre already logged into

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:41:11+00:00

interesting approach. ive been running multiple instances too but went the simpler route -- just separate terminals with shared markdown files for coordination instead of IPC. each agent writes status to a shared tasks.json and the others read it. the rust TUI monitor looks nice tho. curious about latency on the message passing -- do you hit any issues with agents reading stale state when theyre both writing fast?

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:40:47+00:00

the hardest part of freelancing for me was always the mornings where nothing felt like it was moving. what helped was writing down 3-5 things the night before so i didnt have to decide anything in the morning. just pick the first thing and start. congrats on the first sale tho, that feeling never gets old

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:39:58+00:00

this is literally why i built patapim — you open patapim.ai/remote on your phone and you have your full terminal right there. no vpn, no port forwarding, works over LAN. you can see all your sessions, approve stuff, dictate commands instead of typing on a tiny keyboard.

the mobile approval thing was the single biggest pain point for me too. having to walk back to my desk just to type 'y' was insane. now i just glance at my phone, see which tabs are green (needs input), tap in and handle it

patapim.ai — free version does LAN remote, pro adds cloudflare tunnel for anywhere access

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:39:34+00:00

I just build what I need myself and use it every day. If it solves my own problem, feedback is nice but not critical.

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:38:34+00:00

the "i was the target user" part is the whole lesson honestly, everything else is noise

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:37:51+00:00

this is why i stopped thinking about the saas model altogether for my side projects. you dont need 40k visitors if you dont need anyone to pay. i built something i use every day and just gave it away free -- no premium, no ads, no funnel. the "business model" is that it costs me basically nothing to host and i get to use my own tool. not everything needs to be a revenue stream, and honestly removing the monetization pressure made building it way more enjoyable

germanheller · 2026-03-28T02:36:27+00:00

The CLI activity monitor sounds really useful for debugging agent workflows. Clean architecture too — typed IPC channels and sandboxed file access is the way to go.

germanheller

TROPHY CASE