The log

From Inference to Proof: Web Bot Auth in the Wild

User-agents are claims and fingerprints are inference. OpenAI, Cloudflare, and DuckDuckGo are already signing their requests — I captured them at the edge and verified the signatures against each signer's own published keys.

15 min · signals & automated access

Disposable Cloud Proxies in One Command

How terraform-aws-ec2-proxy gives you a fresh IP address with a single terraform apply -- and why you'd want one.

10 min · composable infrastructure

Building a Trust Layer: Ingestion-Time Enrichment for Web Traffic

Joining CloudFront logs with JA4 fingerprints at ingestion time to classify every request — verified bots, spoofed crawlers, suspicious scrapers — before it reaches the dashboard.

12 min · signals & automated access

Building a JA4 Fingerprint Pipeline on AWS

How to capture TLS fingerprints at the CloudFront edge, route them through a serverless pipeline, and query them in Athena — using a CloudFront Function, a bash Lambda, SNS, Firehose, and S3.

9 min · signals & automated access · composable infrastructure

Beyond the User-Agent: Catching Spoofed Bots with JA4 and ASN

User-Agent strings are trivially forged. TLS handshakes are not. How JA4 fingerprinting combined with ASN classification exposes distributed scraper clusters that look exactly like real browsers.

10 min · signals & automated access

Signals #8: Measuring Publication

Publication events as Grafana annotations — overlaying the moment content goes live onto crawler, retrieval, and search performance timelines.

4 min · signals & automated access

Signals #7: From Logs to Signals

Raw requests are interesting, but how do we distinguish crawlers, retrieval systems, previews and humans?

5 min · signals & automated access

Signals #6: Build a Visibility Layer

Building a Visibility Layer for a Static Website with CloudFront, Athena and Grafana

4 min · signals & automated access

Signals #5: Slicing CloudFront Logs

Analyze web traffic with composable shell functions and goaccess. Separate humans from bots, track search traffic, measure LLM consumption — then export to Grafana.

4 min · signals & automated access · shell on lambda

Signals #4: Mapping the Terraform Module Ecosystem

Crawl the entire Terraform AWS module registry, extract metadata, analyze composition patterns. Which modules get reused? Which namespaces ship continuously?

3 min · signals & automated access · shell on lambda · composable infrastructure

Signals #3: GitHub Commit History as a Queryable Dataset

Collect all your commits across orgs, users, and collaborator repos with gh + jq. Merge into a single JSON dataset. Visualize engineering cadence in Grafana.

4 min · signals & automated access · shell on lambda

Signals #2: Browser Events to S3 Data Lake in Bash

First-party web analytics with zero dependencies: browser fetch → bash Lambda → curl SigV4 → SNS → Firehose → partitioned S3 → Athena. Under $1/month.

5 min · signals & automated access

Signals #1: Build a Live API From AWS Documentation

Scrape AWS Lambda runtimes, cache at the edge, serve as JSON. A shell script, a CloudFront behavior, and a cron-free refresh strategy — the pattern, end to end.

3 min · signals & automated access · shell on lambda

Signals: Small Systems That Observe Larger Systems

A series on building lightweight data collection pipelines with shell scripts, AWS primitives, and Grafana.

4 min · signals & automated access · shell on lambda

A Terraform Module for Shell Functions on Lambda

A Terraform module that turns shell scripts into Lambda functions with sub-20ms cold starts. Deploy the runtime once as a layer, then ship pure shell scripts as function packages.

11 min · shell on lambda · composable infrastructure

SES Email Forwarding with Terraform

A Terraform module for receiving email on your domain and forwarding it to an existing inbox using Amazon SES, S3, and Lambda

4 min · composable infrastructure

Observability Without Kubernetes: Tempo on ECS

How we built a lightweight, cost-effective distributed tracing platform for our automation ecosystem using ECS Fargate, S3, and the OpenTelemetry standard.

4 min

Designing for Uncooperative Suppliers

How we designed a flight booking system that operates honestly under uncertainty — without a commercial agreement with the airline.

9 min · systems under uncertainty

The Blind Walk Model

Progress in a complex fulfillment system isn't measured by actions taken. It's measured by truths confirmed. Here's the mental model that changed how we think about execution.

5 min · systems under uncertainty

Shell-First Lambda Endpoints: $0.53/M Requests

A 50KB shell handler delivers production JSON endpoints 677% cheaper than Node.js + API Gateway. Here's how and when it makes sense.

4 min · shell on lambda

Shell on Lambda: The Journey to Sub-25ms Cold Starts

From pure Bash to optimized runtime layers: how systematic experimentation led to the perfect architecture for shell-based Lambda functions

8 min · shell on lambda

Lambda Container Images vs Zip: The UPX Trap

Real-world benchmarking reveals surprising Lambda performance insights: when container images beat ZIP packages and why raw TCP sockets halve cold start times

7 min · shell on lambda

Test Lambda Functions Locally

How to run your Lambda functions locally in an environment identical to AWS using Docker and the Lambda Runtime Interface Emulator

7 min · shell on lambda

Bootstrapping Cloudless Infrastructure

A reusable Terraform foundation for consistent tagging, environments, and shared context across modules.

5 min · composable infrastructure

ECS Autoscaling: Target Tracking, Step, and Scheduled

7 min

Realtime Monitoring with `asciigraph`

Sometimes you just want to see what's happening without opening another browser tab.

2 min

Analytics Pipeline to Event Ingestion

How a simple browser automation project revealed the need for a direct API Gateway to SNS proxy module

7 min · composable infrastructure

Shell Runtime vs Go & Python in Serverless

Deep dive into Lambda runtime performance showing when shell's 20ms overhead becomes negligible and cold start performance dominates

5 min · shell on lambda

Serverless Analytics Pipelines with Terraform

How migrating a bespoke OpenSearch ingestion pipeline led to two reusable Terraform modules for event analytics

5 min · composable infrastructure

Cross-Account OpenSearch Snapshots

Learn how to set up cross-account OpenSearch snapshots using Terraform and CloudPosse modules for robust data migration and backup strategies.

6 min · composable infrastructure

Tiered Anti-Bot Defense for Headless Chrome

How we solved the browser automation performance problem with intelligent tier routing and achieved 10x performance improvements

3 min · systems under uncertainty

Makefile-Driven Lambda Development

How a well-crafted Makefile transforms Lambda development from a collection of manual steps into a seamless, parameterized workflow

6 min · shell on lambda · composable infrastructure

S3–Lambda Thumbnail Processing in Shell

Building a production-ready serverless image processing pipeline using shell scripts, AWS Lambda, and S3 event triggers - with composable layers, sub-25ms cold starts, and zero container image overhead.

7 min · shell on lambda · composable infrastructure

Cutting Email API Costs by 99 %

The story behind QM4IL - why we built our own email API when MailSlurp became too expensive for our booking bots

3 min

Shell vs Node.js: 50% Faster on Lambda

Real serverless performance comparison: shell scripts vs Node.js in AWS Lambda. 50% faster response times, 75% less memory, 90% faster cold starts.

3 min

Alexa, what's the WiFi password?

How turning your router into an API unlocks voice-controlled networking

4 min

Your Shell Script, Running in the Cloud

The foundational mechanics of turning local code into remote execution

5 min · shell on lambda · composable infrastructure

Turn Bash Scripts into Production APIs in 5 Minutes

Complete guide: bash script to production API with AWS Lambda. Authentication, monitoring, and scaling included - no frameworks required.

3 min

When Shell Scripts Meet Real-World

How I turned my router's web interface into a REST API using nothing but shell scripts and Lambda layers

4 min

The Lambda Runtime Spectrum

How to choose the right level of complexity for your serverless functions

4 min · systems under uncertainty

Choose Boring Technology (Even When It's Bash)

Why the most boring solution is often the most powerful

3 min

The Right Tool Fallacy

How choosing the 'wrong' tool gave me 2x performance and 90% less memory usage

3 min

Cloudless Computing Philosophy

The cloudless computing approach: shell-first infrastructure, composable tools, and local development that scales to production.

2 min

Composable Infrastructure

Building infrastructure like Lego blocks - each piece does one thing well

2 min

Lambda Layers Breakthrough

Pre-built Lambda layers with statically-linked binaries for shell-based functions

2 min

AWS Lambda Custom Runtime for Shell Scripts - Container Image Approach

Docker container images for running shell scripts on AWS Lambda. Three optimized variants from 132MB to 417MB with multi-platform support.

3 min · shell on lambda

Terraform Modules Best Practices: Building Composable Infrastructure

Learn terraform module design patterns for reusable, composable infrastructure. Real examples from production systems.

3 min · composable infrastructure

The 5-Minute Promise

5 minutes from idea to production API - removing friction between having an idea and seeing it work in production

2 min · composable infrastructure

Infrastructure as Commodity

Why treating cloud services like utilities changes everything

2 min

The Dumb Router

The full ql48 evolution story

3 min

Container Size Economics

How lambda-shell-runtime is 75% smaller than official runtimes

2 min

Lambda Cold Start Optimization: 90% Faster with Custom Runtimes

Complete guide to AWS Lambda cold start optimization using custom runtimes. Real benchmarks showing 90% improvement over standard runtimes.

4 min

Why Shell Scripts Over Serverless Framework

Comparing serverless frameworks vs shell-first approach. Performance benchmarks, cost analysis, and developer experience comparison.

3 min

Reverse Engineering as Architecture School

How working with black boxes teaches clean boundaries, and why chaos forces disciplined design

6 min · systems under uncertainty

Self-Managing ECS Tasks

How ECS Task Protection enables zero-downtime deployments and prevents message loss

4 min