43 guides, snippets and tools · updated 5 Nov 2026
Practical patterns for real-world development
Most development happens inside existing systems. Scripts, patterns and tools shaped by real constraints: messy data, limited schema control, and the need to be reliable.
- Fix data in production without risking it Pattern
- Update or delete millions of rows Snippet
- Turn a spreadsheet list into SQL Tool
- Read a JSON payload in SQL Server Tool
- Read an XML file in SQL Server Tool
- Stop an integration creating duplicates Pattern
- Retry a flaky API without hammering it Pattern
- Changing Large Volumes of Production Data Without an Outage Pattern
- Designing Audit Trails That Help Investigation Pattern
- Designing Integration Pipelines That Fail Safely Pattern
- Stopping Duplicates at the Source Instead of Cleaning Them Up Pattern
- Why Status Tables Fail Operations Teams Pattern
- SQL Server: Bulk Update with JOIN Snippet
- SQL Server: Convert Between XML and JSON Snippet
- SQL Server: Find and Remove Duplicate Rows with ROW_NUMBER() Snippet
- SQL Server: Pass a List of IDs Without Dynamic SQL Snippet
- SQL Server: Query Large XML Documents Without Timeouts Snippet
- SQL Server: Record Changed Rows with OUTPUT INTO Snippet
- SQL Server: Safe Bulk DELETE Using JOIN Snippet
- SQL Server: Turn XML Into Rows with nodes() Snippet
- SQL Server: Update Only When Values Change Snippet
- SQL Server: UPSERT Without MERGE Snippet
- TypeScript: Retry fetch with Exponential Backoff and Jitter Snippet
- Foreign Key Diagram from SQL Server Tool
- Retry Backoff Schedule Calculator Tool
- Reversible Data Fix Script Builder Tool
- Timestamp Converter for Integrations Tool
- XML to JSON Converter Tool
- AI Agents: What They Are and How to Use Them AI guide
- Architecting Multi-Agent Systems AI guide
- Building Your Own AI Agent System AI guide
- Letting an LLM Write SQL Against Production, Safely AI guide
- LLM Productivity Workflows AI guide
- Custom Shaders from First Principles: A Terrain Generator in Three.js Experiment
- Embeddings Explained: Explore How AI Represents Meaning in 3D Experiment
- Flocking Algorithm (Boids) Experiment
- How a Database Index Works: A B-Tree in 3D Experiment
- How SQL Server Joins Tables: Nested Loops, Hash and Merge, Side by Side Experiment
- How to Read a SQL Server Execution Plan, in 3D Experiment
- OutSystems REST API Implementation Experiment
- Rate Limiting Algorithms Compared: Token Bucket, Leaky Bucket and Sliding Window Experiment
- Retries, Backoff and Circuit Breakers, Visualised in Three.js Experiment
- Three.js: Force-Directed Node Graph Experiment
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Fix production data safely
Build integrations that don't break
Recently updated
| Page | Type | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign Key Diagram from SQL Server | Tool | 5 Nov 2026 |
| Custom Shaders from First Principles: A Terrain Generator in Three.js | Experiment | 1 Nov 2026 |
| Embeddings Explained: Explore How AI Represents Meaning in 3D | Experiment | 1 Nov 2026 |
| How a Database Index Works: A B-Tree in 3D | Experiment | 1 Nov 2026 |
| How SQL Server Joins Tables: Nested Loops, Hash and Merge, Side by Side | Experiment | 1 Nov 2026 |
| How to Read a SQL Server Execution Plan, in 3D | Experiment | 1 Nov 2026 |
Tools run in your browser; nothing you paste is sent anywhere
- >_ foreign-key-diagram Paste the results of a query against sys.foreign_keys and get a diagram of your tables and how they relate, with every column if you want them. Export as SVG, PNG or Mermaid.
- >_ json-to-openjson Paste a sample JSON payload and get a SQL Server OPENJSON query with column types inferred from the data.
- >_ list-to-sql Turn a pasted list of ids, or ids and new values, into a #temp table, an IN list, or JSON for OPENJSON.
- >_ retry-schedule See when each retry happens for an exponential backoff policy, and how long a call can take before it gives up.
- >_ data-fix-script Generate a SQL Server data fix script for an update or a delete, with a preview, backup table, verification, and a ready-made rollback or restore.
- >_ timestamp-converter Convert between Unix timestamps, ISO 8601, .NET ticks, Microsoft JSON dates, HTTP dates, and SQL Server literals.
- >_ xml-json-converter Convert XML to JSON and JSON back to XML, with attributes, repeated elements and namespaces handled the same way in both directions.
- >_ xml-to-nodes Paste a sample XML document and get a SQL Server nodes()/value() query, with column types inferred from the data and child rows shredded with CROSS APPLY.
Browse by section
- Patterns Higher-level engineering approaches: integration pipelines, data fixes, audit trails, and operational design.
- Snippets Small copy/paste solutions with short explanations, mostly SQL Server.
- Tools Browser-based utilities for SQL Server and integration work.
- AI & LLMs Practical guides on AI agents, local LLMs, and automation workflows.
- Experiments Visual and technical experiments.