Notes

What building this taught me

Short pieces with the numbers in them, written as the work happens. The commit log is the changelog; this is the part of it worth a paragraph.

On portlandaiworks.comInside hostelHow the Mac app is built and why it exists: a local model host that gets MCP right for a small model, with Saybooks as the first thing it talks to. 24 September 2026 · on portlandaiworks.comA local model keeps the booksThe measurements, with the diagrams: the same model going from one task in four to four in four when only the layer between it and the books changed. 16 September 2026Smart model, average MCP. Small model, smart MCP.A day of getting a 26B local model to keep a set of books over MCP, on a laptop, with nothing leaving the machine, and the six things it forced me to fix in the tools rather than the model.