Practical guides for working with AI

What actually changed in the September release, which of the five effort levels to use for which job, and the two kinds of work worth re-attempting now that long jobs cost a quarter of what they did.

Pick the Qwen size your laptop's RAM can actually run, install it with one command, then use it in the terminal and in VS Code with the Wi-Fi off.

Install the free Ponytail plugin in Claude Code, pick the right intensity level, and confirm the agent is checking cheaper options before it writes new code.

8 installable Claude Code skills, the setup each one actually needs, and the download so you can run them yourself.

Build a useful voice profile from your own examples, then use a repeatable revision process to make generic drafts specific.