Matt Brailsford

📰 SPECKL: Testing a Human-First Approach to AI-Assisted Development

Matt Brailsford discusses his upcoming talk on Spec-Driven Development (SDD) and explores the collaborative potential of AI in software development through his SPECKL Manifesto. SPECKL emphasizes structured specifications to guide AI assistance, balancing control and automation. Matt invites feedback and experimentation with this approach as a transitional tool in AI-assisted development.

📰 UMB.FYI Celebrates it's 2nd Birthday with a Pulse Check

Matt Brailsford reflects on the two-year journey of UMB.FYI, which has evolved from a weekly digest into a comprehensive record of the Umbraco community's developments. Matt celebrates the milestone with the release of the UMB.FYI Pulse Check, a year-in-data snapshot of the Umbraco community’s heartbeat.

📰 UMB.FYI Gets a New Workflow Engine

Matt Brailsford developed a workflow engine to automate repetitive tasks in producing the UMB.FYI newsletter, enhancing efficiency and reliability. The engine, built in C#, streamlines data collection, validation, and content enhancement, allowing for a more enjoyable editing process. Future improvements aim to refine detection and summarization tasks.

📰 UMB.FYI Celebrates it's 100th Issue

Matt Brailsford celebrates the 100th issue of UMB.FYI, a newsletter that aggregates Umbraco news, now reaching over 700 subscribers. The newsletter has featured 2,128 items, showcasing the vibrant Umbraco community. Future plans include automating processes and potentially creating a dashboard for users. Matt expresses gratitude for community support and feedback.

📰 Building an MCP Server for Umbraco Commerce

Building on Phil Whittaker and Matt Wise’s MCP integration at Codegarden, which supercharged Umbraco’s AI capabilities, Matt Brailsford unveils an Umbraco Commerce proof-of-concept: a conversational store-management assistant delivering actionable insights and analytics—and inviting the community’s feedback to shape what comes next.

📰 How I Saved 5GB of Storage Per Year for UMB.FYI

Matt Brailsford discusses how he reduced the HTML size of the UMB.FYI newsletter from 215KB to 57KB by eliminating global styles and unnecessary markup. This optimization not only prevented Gmail from clipping emails but also saved 5.6GB of storage annually, promoting more sustainable digital practices.

📰 UMB.FYI Gets an iOS Tip Shortcut

UMB.FYI emphasizes community engagement by allowing members to submit Umbraco-related content easily through various integrations. The latest addition is an iOS Shortcut that enables users to share links directly from their devices. This feature enhances content curation while ensuring user privacy, fostering a richer community resource.

📰 ND & Me: Running in Emulation

Matt Brailsford recounts his journey of self-discovery regarding neurodivergence, sparked by a conversation about introversion at Codegarden 2016. After a formal diagnosis of Autism, ADHD, and Dyslexia, he emphasizes the importance of community, support, and advocacy for neurodivergent individuals, proposing a virtual peer support group within the Umbraco community.

💬 Umbraco Commerce v15 performance improvements