Uses
The hardware, software, and tools I use every day — from dev environment to cloud infrastructure. Updated periodically.
Hardware
- Lenovo ThinkPad E14Main machine. 11th Gen i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Still going strong.
- Samsung 27" 4K MonitorUHD IPS panel. Makes everything look better, including my code.
- Keychron K2Compact TKL mechanical keyboard. Red switches for long coding sessions.
- iPhone 14 ProPrimary iOS testing device. Also my personal phone.
Development
- IntelliJ IDEA + VS Code + Claude AIIntelliJ IDEA for all Java/Spring Boot work; VS Code for frontend. Claude for AI-assisted sessions.
- Tokyo Night themeEasy on the eyes during long sessions. The purple hues just work.
- Windows TerminalWith Cascadia Code Nerd Font. WSL2 for the Linux tools I need.
- zsh + Oh My ZshPowerlevel10k prompt. The autocomplete plugins are non-negotiable.
- Git + GitHub + GitFlowVersion control with GitFlow branching. Always PR-based workflow.
- Maven + GradleBuild tools for Java projects. Maven for most Spring Boot work, Gradle for newer ones.
- PostmanAPI testing and documentation. Collections make sharing integration contracts with teammates easy.
- DBeaverUniversal DB GUI. Connects to PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Oracle without switching tools.
Databases & Caching
- PostgreSQLPrimary database for most projects. Rock-solid, excellent JSON support, and the ecosystem is unbeatable.
- MySQL / Oracle DatabaseFor enterprise projects at HCLTech and Infosys. Oracle specifically for legacy ITSM platform work.
- RedisCaching layer and session management. The throughput improvement on hot data paths is dramatic.
- Hibernate + Spring Data JPAORM of choice for all Spring Boot projects. Pair with HikariCP for connection pooling.
Messaging & Events
- Apache Kafka + Confluent CloudEvent streaming backbone for distributed systems. Confluent Cloud for fully managed deployments in production.
- Kafka MagicGUI client for Kafka. Makes inspecting topic offsets, consumer lag, and DLQs far less painful.
- Spring KafkaClean abstraction over the Kafka client. Listener containers and error handlers reduce a lot of boilerplate.
Cloud & DevOps
- DockerEverything runs in containers. Makes environment parity between dev, staging, and prod a solved problem.
- Kubernetes + Helm + LensK8s for orchestration, Helm for packaging deployments, Lens as the GUI for navigating clusters without memorising kubectl flags.
- AWS (EKS, S3, EC2, IAM, CloudWatch)Primary cloud provider. EKS for managed Kubernetes, S3 for object storage, CloudWatch for basic observability.
- GCP (App Engine, GKE, Cloud Build)Used at HCLTech for deploying ITSM services. Cloud Build for CI/CD pipelines. Solid developer experience.
- TerraformInfrastructure as code for AWS and GCP. Reproducible environments and no more manual console clicks.
- GitLab CI/CD + GitHub Actions + JenkinsPipeline tooling depending on the client. GitHub Actions for personal projects; Jenkins and GitLab for enterprise.
Monitoring & Observability
- New Relic APMPrimary APM tool. Traces slow queries and surfaces performance regressions before users report them.
- ELK StackElasticsearch + Logstash + Kibana for centralised logging across distributed services. Saved hours of log-grepping.
- SplunkLog aggregation and alerting in enterprise environments. Powerful query language once you get past the syntax.
Design
- FigmaFor all UI design and prototyping. The collaborative features are excellent.
- ExcalidrawFor architecture diagrams and quick sketches. The hand-drawn aesthetic helps in client presentations.
Productivity
- NotionNotes, projects, and knowledge management. My second brain.
- LinearProject tracking for MadakLabs work. Clean UI and keyboard-first.
- JiraIssue tracking for enterprise delivery at Infosys. Not glamorous, but it keeps large teams aligned.
- SlackClient communication and team channels at Infosys.
- WhatsApp BusinessQuick client communication. Not ideal but it's where clients are.
Hosting & Infrastructure
- VercelDefault hosting for all Next.js projects. Zero-config deployments are genuinely magic.
- SupabasePostgres + auth + storage for SaaS projects. Great DX and generous free tier.
- ResendTransactional email. Much better developer experience than SendGrid.
- GitHub ActionsCI/CD pipelines for all projects. Familiar and free for public repos.
- CloudflareDNS, CDN, and Workers for edge functions when needed.
Learning
- ASHOK IT + YouTubeBest structured courses for web development.
- Fireship on YouTubeBest technical content creator on YouTube. No fluff, very dense.
- ByteByteGo newsletterSystem design concepts explained well. Weekly and worth reading. Gaurav Sen's channel is equally essential.
- The Pragmatic ProgrammerCurrently reading. Should have read this five years ago.