# Notes on Claude Code, AI agents and the web. Page 5 of 12. Hands-on posts on Claude Code, MCP, AI agents, Next.js and TypeScript, plus honest tool comparisons from shipping software for clients. RSS: https://alexcloudstar.com/rss.xml - [Securing AI Agents in Production: What Nobody Tells You Before Something Breaks](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/securing-ai-agents-production-2026/): A Cursor AI agent deleted a production database in nine seconds. Not because the AI was malicious, but because nobody thought carefully about what it was allowed to touch. Here is a practical security framework for running AI agents in production without handing them the keys to everything. (Apr 2026) - [AI Browser Agents in 2026: Stagehand vs Browser Use vs Playwright](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/ai-browser-agent-stagehand-browser-use-playwright/): Most browser automation tutorials show you how to click buttons. They do not show you what happens when the button moves, the page layout changes, and the model confidently clicks the wrong thing anyway. Here is how to build browser agents that survive contact with the real web. (Apr 2026) - [RAG vs Fine-Tuning: A Developer Guide to When RAG Is Not Enough](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/llm-fine-tuning-developer-guide-2026/): RAG is the answer for most retrieval problems, but there is a class of problem it cannot solve: when you need the model itself to behave differently, not just know more things. This is the practical guide to fine-tuning I wish I had before I wasted two months and four thousand dollars doing it wrong. (Apr 2026) - [Multi-Agent vs Single-Agent Architecture in 2026: When the Crew Beats the Soloist](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/multi-agent-vs-single-agent-architecture-2026/): Multi-agent systems are the architecture pattern everyone is talking about in 2026 and almost nobody actually needs. After shipping both shapes in production, here is the honest framework for when a crew of agents beats a single well-prompted one, and when it just multiplies your bugs. (Apr 2026) - [Structured Outputs in 2026: Function Calling, JSON Mode, and the Schema Wars](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/structured-outputs-llm-developer-guide-2026/): Three years ago you parsed LLM JSON with a prayer and a regex. In 2026 every major provider supports schema-constrained outputs, but they all do it differently, and the wrong choice will silently corrupt your data. Here is the field guide I wish I had before I shipped four broken integrations. (Apr 2026) - [Prompt Caching in 2026: Anthropic vs OpenAI vs Gemini for Production Apps](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/prompt-caching-production-guide-2026/): Prompt caching is the quiet unlock that makes long context economics work in production. But every provider implements it differently, the pricing math is not obvious, and most developers are leaving 70 to 90 percent savings on the table. Here is a field guide after burning a lot of tokens to figure out what actually works. (Apr 2026) - [Inngest vs Temporal vs Vercel Workflow (2026): Picking a Durable Engine](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/temporal-vs-inngest-vs-vercel-workflow-2026/): Durable execution engines went from "interesting infra pattern" to "the only sane way to build AI agents and long-running background work" in 2026. Temporal, Inngest, and Vercel Workflow are the three I keep seeing in production. Here is how they actually compare after running real workloads on all three. (Apr 2026) - [RAG vs Long Context in 2026: When to Retrieve and When to Just Stuff the Window](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/rag-vs-long-context-2026/): Claude Opus 4.7 ships with a 1 million token context window. Gemini 2.5 has 2 million. GPT-5 sits at 400k. The obvious question: do we still need RAG, or can we just paste the whole codebase into the prompt? After rebuilding two production features both ways, the answer is not what I expected. (Apr 2026) - [Best Vector Database in 2026: pgvector vs Pinecone vs Turbopuffer vs Qdrant](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/vector-database-comparison-2026/): I spent the last two months running the same RAG workload across pgvector, Pinecone, Turbopuffer, and Qdrant on real production traffic. Here is what actually shipped, what broke, and which one I would pick if I were starting a new project this week. (Apr 2026) - [CodeRabbit vs Greptile vs Vercel Agent: AI Code Review Compared (2026)](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/ai-code-review-tools-comparison-2026/): AI code review tools moved from novelty to mandatory in 2026. CodeRabbit is the market leader, Greptile is the technical darling, and Vercel Agent is the native pick for anyone deploying on Vercel. Here is an honest comparison after running all three against real pull requests on real codebases. (Apr 2026) - [Durable AI Workflows in 2026: Why Your Next AI Feature Needs Orchestration](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/durable-ai-workflows-orchestration-2026/): AI agents that talk to APIs, run for minutes, and touch external state break in ways your typical request-response code does not. Durable workflow engines like Inngest, Trigger.dev, and Vercel Workflow solve a problem most developers do not realize they have until production burns them. Here is the guide I wish I had six months ago. (Apr 2026) - [AI Agent Observability: Debugging Production Agents Without Going Insane (2026)](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/ai-agent-observability-debugging-production-2026/): The reason your agent works in development and quietly falls apart in production is almost never the model. It is that you cannot see what it did. Here is the observability setup that turns mystery failures into fixable bugs. (Apr 2026) - [Windsurf vs Cursor vs Zed: Which AI IDE Should You Use in 2026?](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/cursor-vs-windsurf-vs-zed-ai-ide-2026/): Three AI-native IDEs are competing for the seat next to your keyboard. I used each one as my daily driver for a week. Here is what actually matters when you pick between Cursor, Windsurf, and Zed in 2026. (Apr 2026) - [Vercel AI SDK Guide: Shipping AI Features Without Vendor Lock-In (v6)](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/ai-sdk-v6-developer-guide-2026/): The Vercel AI SDK v6 is the easiest way to add AI features to a product in 2026 without marrying one model provider. Here is how it works, what actually changed in v6, and the patterns that matter when you are shipping real features rather than demos. (Apr 2026) - [Better Auth vs Clerk vs Supabase Auth: Which Should Solo Devs Pick in 2026?](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/better-auth-vs-clerk-vs-supabase-auth-2026/): Auth is the decision that silently shapes your product for years. Clerk is the polished default. Supabase Auth is the pragmatic bundle. Better Auth is the open-source challenger changing the conversation in 2026. Here is how I pick between them for solo dev projects. (Apr 2026) - [Claude Design Review: First Impressions for Developers (2026)](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/claude-design-review-developer-first-look-2026/): Anthropic launched Claude Design two days ago. Powered by Opus 4.7, it generates layouts from a chat conversation and hands off directly to Claude Code. Here is what actually works, what the real limitations are, and who should try it right now. (Apr 2026) - [Claude Design vs Figma: What the 7% Stock Drop Actually Signals (2026)](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/claude-design-vs-figma-stock-drop-signals-2026/): Figma's stock dropped 7% the day Claude Design launched. Mike Krieger resigned from Figma's board three days before. Here is what those signals actually mean for developers, designers, and anyone watching where design tooling is heading. (Apr 2026) - [SaaS Churn Rate: How to Reduce It Without a Support Team](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/saas-churn-reduction-solo-founder-2026/): Cutting monthly churn from 8% to 3% nearly triples the lifetime value of a customer. Most solo founders know this but do not have a system for fixing it without hiring support staff. This is that system. (Apr 2026) - [How to Test AI-Generated Code: Tools and a Process That Catches Real Bugs](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/testing-ai-generated-code-developer-guide-2026/): AI coding tools write code fast. Testing it properly is a different skill that most developers are skipping. Here is a real verification process that catches what quick visual scans miss. (Apr 2026) - [Claude Opus 4.7 Just Dropped: First Impressions, Benchmarks, and What Actually Changed](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/claude-opus-4-7-review-benchmarks-developer-guide-2026/): Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.7 today with major improvements to agentic coding, 3x sharper vision, and a new effort level that sits between high and max. Here is what is genuinely different, what the benchmarks say, and whether you should switch from 4.6 right now. (Apr 2026) - [Newer posts](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/4/) - [Older posts](https://alexcloudstar.com/blog/6/)