Notes from building local AI agents on one Mac mini: what works, what it costs, and what it measured.https://blog.craigdube.dev/en-ushttps://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/cheap-enough-to-be-wrong/https://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/cheap-enough-to-be-wrong/I was sure a hosted reading service would make my daily learnings deeper. Instead of building it, I spent a morning building the thing that would tell me whether I was right.Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/managing-the-context-window/https://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/managing-the-context-window/My nightly wiki job kept warning me it was almost out of context. Doubling the window made the warnings stop, which turned out to be the least interesting thing I could have done about it.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/intentional-frugality/https://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/intentional-frugality/When I started actively building AI workflows this past April, I didn't sit down with a strict, pre-planned budget. What I did have was a healthy, operator-level anxiety about the cost of compute.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/building-wren/https://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/building-wren/I started with one question — how much real work can a personal AI assistant handle on local hardware, without shipping your daily life through a cloud API?Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/the-first-four-months/https://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/the-first-four-months/When I retired at the end of March 2026, my day-to-day shifted from the standard corporate track to a new phase of rigorous, hands-on technical building. Here is a look at exactly how I have spent my time.Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/the-journey-begins/https://blog.craigdube.dev/blog/the-journey-begins/Welcome to my personal logbook. As a tech professional who bridges the gap between Product Management, Engineering Operations, and Software Development, I built this space to document my transition from a 35-year career into an active phase of post-retirement technical building.Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT