Field Guides

Practical guides for
the modern web.

Deep, opinionated field guides on the tools and concepts that matter. No fluff, no prerequisites — just clear explanations and things you can actually do.

Guides
🤖
AI Superpowers
From using AI chat smarter today to building real automations with Claude Code. Three parts, no prerequisites.
ai.fieldguides.tech →
💬
Prompting
The thinking behind great prompts — mental models, failure modes, iteration techniques, and patterns for getting consistently useful results from AI.
prompting.fieldguides.tech →
🔐
Security Basics
API keys, passwords, 2FA, SSH, .env files, and the habits that keep your projects and accounts safe.
security.fieldguides.tech →
🎯
Token Efficiency
Better results from AI with fewer tokens — the mental model, the habits, and the engineering patterns for context management and cost control.
token-efficiency.fieldguides.tech →
⚙️
Automation
What's worth automating, which tools to use, no-code workflows, scripted pipelines, AI-powered steps, and keeping it all running.
automation.fieldguides.tech →
⌨️
The Terminal
Everything you need to feel at home on the command line. Navigation, files, scripts, and the mental model that makes it all click.
terminal.fieldguides.tech →
✍️
Technical Communication
How to write bug reports, pull requests, technical specs, and Slack messages that actually get read, understood, and acted on.
technical-communication.fieldguides.tech →
🌿
Git & GitHub
Version control from first principles. Commits, branches, pull requests, and the workflows real teams actually use.
git.fieldguides.tech →
🔌
APIs
What APIs are, how they work, how to authenticate, read documentation, and build things that talk to external services.
apis.fieldguides.tech →
🐛
Debugging
A systematic method for finding bugs — error messages, isolation techniques, common patterns, AI-generated code failures, and what to do when you're stuck.
debugging.fieldguides.tech →
🧱
Coding Basics for AI
Variables, functions, data structures, and the judgment to know when AI-generated code works — and when it quietly doesn't.
coding-basics.fieldguides.tech →
📖
Reading Code
How to approach unfamiliar code — orienting yourself, tracing execution, recognizing patterns, and evaluating what AI generates.
reading-code.fieldguides.tech →
📊
Data
How data actually works — CSV, JSON, spreadsheets, pandas, cleaning, reshaping, and catching the errors that produce confident wrong answers.
data.fieldguides.tech →
🗄️
SQL
How databases think about data, how to write queries with confidence, why some are slow, and where AI-generated SQL goes wrong.
sql.fieldguides.tech →
⚡
Performance
Why things are slow and how to fix them — Big O, network bottlenecks, database queries, caching, frontend rendering, and AI token economics.
performance.fieldguides.tech →
🔗
Connections
Why this thing won't talk to that thing — DNS, ports, localhost, firewalls, SSH, CORS, TLS, and a systematic debugging chain.
connections.fieldguides.tech →
🧪
Testing
What makes a test trustworthy vs. theatrical — falsifiable claims, the testing pyramid, edge cases, mocks, and AI-generated test pitfalls.
testing.fieldguides.tech →