MossBySea

AI Tools, Tested

This is the main line of the site. Every post is built around a real work task — I take a tool at a job I already had to do, then record what it managed, where it stalled, and whether it was worth paying for.

How I test

So that posts can be compared against each other, every test follows the same rules:

The full methodology and conflict-of-interest statement are on the About page.

Comparisons 4 entries

Same real task, several tools, side by side — and where they diverge.

Hands-on 6 entries

One project taken from nothing to working, including what broke.

Oct 9, 2026

Redesigning an Astro blog with an AI agent

Three rendered directions built from my real posts, one argument I overruled, and two environment bugs the agent caught that had nothing to do with design.

Sep 30, 2026

Four places secrets leak before you publish

Git history is permanent and public. Commit authorship is readable. Screenshot pixels carry text and image metadata carries more. A scanner misses all four.

Guides 10 entries

The shortest path from install to actually using it.

Oct 22, 2026

Affordable tech gifts worth gifting

A researched roundup of low-price tech gifts from current Amazon listings — what's worth gifting and what to skip, with honest notes on each.

Oct 22, 2026

Best tech gifts: premium picks

A researched roundup of premium tech gifts — flagship headphones, top-tier noise-cancellers and a flagship phone — and when spending more is worth it.

Oct 21, 2026

Astro build fails on Cloudflare Pages: fixes

Astro builds failing on Cloudflare Pages? The usual causes — Node version too old, wrong output dir, install timeouts — and the fixes that worked.

Oct 21, 2026

Cloudflare Pages redirects: the 301 playbook

How to redirect on Cloudflare Pages without 404s — the _redirects file, Astro redirects, Bulk Redirects, 301 vs 302, and the bare git mv trap.

Oct 21, 2026

Cloudflare Pages www down: fix Error 1016

Disabled workers.dev and www went down with Error 1016? Here is the exact cause — a CNAME still pointing at the subdomain you killed — and the two fixes.

Oct 21, 2026

How to deploy Astro on Cloudflare Pages

Deploy Astro 5 to Cloudflare Pages from scratch — connect GitHub, set the build, pick a Node version, add a custom domain, and what breaks next.