Simon Willison first-party · 4d ago · 1/5
Adding a new content type to my blog-to-newsletter tool ↗
Simon Willison describes how he used Claude Code to extend his blog-to-newsletter tool to include a new "beats" content type (releases, tools, museums, and other external content). He provided Claude with a concise prompt that instructed it to clone his blog repository for reference, modify the HTML app to filter beats with descriptions, and validate the changes using local testing. The agent successfully generated the exact SQL and JavaScript changes needed, including a UNION clause and beat-type display mappings.
Coding agents can clone code from GitHub, and the best way to explain a problem is often to have them look at relevant code.
Coding agents always work best if they have some kind of validation mechanism they can use to test their own work.