What I've been building

Work went entirely into automated tests and developer tooling for Anecdote, with nothing that changes how the app works for you.

The checklist that guides setting up a new project was reorganised, so steps belonging elsewhere no longer pile up in it.

The shared code and the apps now fail their own checks if a change drops below the level of automated testing they already had.

This was housekeeping on the automated tests, the safety net that catches mistakes before any change reaches people using the planner.

Most of the work went into getting the portfolio ready to share as a first public version.

• A new case study covers the version-status project from idea to live, with an architecture diagram and a link to the running dashboard.
• The homepage now leads with Anecdote and Remind me later as featured projects, and drops two entries that had no write-up yet.
• Featured project cards now carry a gradient border and a FEATURED tag, so the projects worth reading first stand out.
• The header now has a LinkedIn button, so you can connect in one click instead of hunting for a contact link.
• On a phone, the interactive demos in case studies now open in a tap-to-expand full-height sheet, instead of cramping into the page.
• A new privacy page explains what the site records and how to opt out of analytics.
• Fixed hard-to-read faint text, a dead header menu button, an oversized gap under case-study headers, and blank cells on the live status dashboard.

Nothing looks different, but the code behind your profile settings is now backed by tests, so future updates are less likely to break it.

This adds a home-built URL shortener, the kind of link you’d normally pay a service for.

• You can now create short links from an admin page, each carrying click-tracking tags, so you can see which resume or message drew a click.
• Long links in reminder texts are now shortened automatically, so a message stays short and readable instead of wrapping across the screen.
• Anyone opening one of those short links lands on the original page, so the shortening is invisible to them.

This was behind-the-scenes groundwork, adding tools that generate test stories and automatic checks that stop untested code going live.

The planner’s Google sign-in got all the attention.

• You can now sign in with Google first time, where before it hung for about 30 seconds then dumped you back at the landing page.
• If sign-in ever stalls now, it gives up within seconds and quietly retries, so you get in instead of waiting and being bounced out.

The daily review screen and the morning text message both got some attention.

• Picking a time for a task in your daily review now files it and clears it from the list, with no separate confirm step.
• Your morning text message now fits more of your day, so fewer tasks get cut when the list is long.
• Fixed an overdue badge that clashed with its neighbour and showed an unhelpful month, and trimmed repeated notes from the morning message.

Most of the day went to fleshing out The Weekly’s case study and sharpening the look of the rest of the site.

• The Weekly case study now shows how its recipe data was scraped from Coles, with a diagram, so the build story is concrete.
• It now opens with a real screenshot of the app mid-selection, replacing a plain gradient placeholder that showed nothing of the product.
• The Weekly’s homepage card now carries a large ‘01’ numeral mark, giving the project grid more visual identity.
• Case study section headings now use larger serif type, so telling a section from a subsection while reading is easier.
• Project cards now carry short editorial tags about each project, instead of a raw list of framework names, so each card’s point lands faster.
• Homepage section labels like ‘Selected work’ and ‘About’ are now proper headings, giving the page a clearer structure.
• Case study pages now show how many iterations a project went through, so the effort behind it is visible up front.
• Embedded app previews now sit in a cleaner line-drawn phone frame, replacing an older frame with a fake browser bar.
• A new dashboard shows which version of each project is live across production, preview and the main branch, so lagging ones stand out.
• Renamed the ‘Shipped’ label to ‘Done-ish’, fixed a LinkedIn link that led nowhere, made a diagram caption readable, and tidied a mismatched link style.

Leaving the capture screen no longer means losing a story you had not finished telling.

• Navigating away from capture with an unfinished story now prompts you to save it as a draft, so nothing you started disappears.
• Saving the draft brings it back automatically the next time you open capture, so you can pick up where you left off.
• Choosing discard clears the draft, so an abandoned story does not reappear later.
• Closing the tab or refreshing keeps your story on its own, without asking you anything.

Deleting your account now removes the reminder records that used to be left behind, so nothing of yours lingers after you have gone.

Anecdote’s story-capture flow got worked over from end to end.

• After saving a story in chat, you now see the whole entry first, so you can confirm it or edit it before moving on.
• The bot now keeps asking until a story has real action, a measurable result and stakes, so what you save holds up in an interview.
• Saved stories, regenerated resume bullets and synthesised updates now read in your own first-person voice, not a coach describing you in the third person.
• A story can now carry more than one behavioural theme, so one about both leadership and a tough challenge keeps both tags.
• Your themes now split into behavioural categories and approach themes, with the five core categories protected so you can’t accidentally delete them.
• You can now press Enter for a new line while capturing, and send with Shift, Cmd or Ctrl plus Enter, so multi-line messages are easy.
• Your reply and a thinking spinner now show the instant you send one during capture, instead of after a pause, so the chat feels quick.
• While a story saves, the chat now shows a “Saving your story” indicator, so you know it’s working rather than wondering if the tap registered.
• When you add an update to a pending story, the result field now shows animated dots while it’s rewritten, so the wait is visible.
• Fixed the Start interview button dropping off-screen on mobile, the Active tab listing unfinished stories, and visual polish across the log, story and capture screens.

Anecdote’s filter drawer got a visual polish, dropping a spare search box, tightening its lists, and lightening the bar you drag to close it.

Reminders and repeating tasks got most of the attention.

• Your weekly review reminder sends on Sunday again, after a scheduling bug silently blocked it for the past two weeks.
• Fixed text snoozes saving the wrong time, snoozed tasks lingering on Today, and repeating tasks showing on the wrong days in the timeline.