Create a file named adaptive.toml in ~/.config/helix/themes/adaptive.toml with the following content:

inherits = "<any existing theme"

Then just update this file automatically, based on your system theme.

On macOS I do this using dark-mode-notify which triggers a script. On Arch I just set it just as part of my theme switcher script, something like this.

Internally, JetBrains teams are using:

• ChatGPT
• GPT‑5
• Codex

Externally, JetBrains customers can choose GPT‑5 in Junie, the company’s coding agent, and in AI Assistant (for chat assistance).

Reference: Inside JetBrains—the company reshaping how the world writes code

How it started

The only spare machines I had were old Apple laptops. The notorious 12“ MacBook from 2015 that only has one USB-C port. Yes, one, and nothing else. The other one is a M1 MacBook Air, which is kind of in use by my wife. So I opted for the 12" MacBook, thinking it would be easy, since it’s an Intel machine.

How it‘s going

So I went ahead and installed Omarchy on my 12" MacBook, which wasn’t easy. Remember it only has one USB-C port and apparently the internal keyboard and trackpad do not work with Arch (what Omarchy is based on). It required connecting to a USB-C hub that has a keyboard, mouse and spare USB port for the USB boot stick. I was even able to make the keyboard and trackpad work by stealing a prebuilt kernel from Pop!OS .

Omarchy

My first experience of Omarchy as a desktop environment was great. It’s essentially a preconfigured Hyprland installation with Waybar and Walker as a launcher. Coming from a Mac, the setup felt really nice with keyboard shortcuts that make sense and everything is easy to discover.

A word on Omarchy

Reading A word on Omarchy made me question whether I actually needed Omarchy for what I was trying to achieve. In the end all I wanted was to try running Linux for a while. Additionally the 12" MacBook is so slooooww. I needed a new setup.

Plain Arch

Eventually I gave in and researched if I could install and dual boot Linux on the M1 MacBook Air. After all it should give me much faster performance and I wouldn’t need to buy a new machine, just to try out Arch. Luckily Asahi Linux has come a long way and allows dual booting ARM Linux on a MacBook. And it also has an Arch fork! The installation process was very smooth and didn’t even require booting from a USB stick, just install it directly from within macOS!

Replicating the Omarchy experience by installing Hyprland, Waybar, a launcher and a few apps weren’t really hard. I took some scripts and config files from the Omarchy git repo to get me started and tweaked from there.

Will I switch?

Probably not at this point, but it is a fun experiment and reminds me so much of my teenage times where I was installing Slackware on my PC just as a challenge (and because I somehow thought my PC would run faster, when compiling everything from scratch, which it didn’t). It made me realize what software I use daily that keeps me walled in and I deliberately switched some of it to more platform independent and self-hosted alternatives. I will keep using it outside of work for writing, learning and coding.

This was just an outage, but imagine what power they possess and what bad actors could do with it.

Reference: https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/

Background

Helix uses workspaces to decide what files to show in the file picker (<space> f). This is done by traversing the file tree until a .git repository is found. When working with large mono repos this can be annoying in case you only want to work in the realm of a specific subfolder. Even when opening the subfolder explicitly with hx subfolder it will still show the entire files of the parent git repo.

I was quite confident about how I handled my online security at that point, but it got me thinking where I could do better. And around the same time I came across a blog post by Andrej Karpathy that triggered some actions.

First let’s start with where I came from. I was using 1Password to store all my accounts (in the cloud). Not a real security feature, but a thing that makes me easily identify any phishing mails, is that I use unique email addresses for every service I sign up to. So if I get a DHL notification email to the email address I used to sign up at a random online shop, I know this is phishy. And it’s also probably safe to assume that that random online shop got hacked and leaked customer emails. Other things like encrypting my disk with FileVault, encrypting my Synology backups, using a VPN, and secure messaging were already in place.

So what could I do better?

The first thing I did was move away from 1Password. I must say that I think they have an absolutely great product. But it’s totally based on trust and I’m trusting this one service with basically all my accounts. That always scared me, but it was so convenient. Now I’m self-hosting open source software on my own server, which isn’t exposed to the public internet. To connect, I use my home VPN gateway with VPN Tracker as the client, so the vault is only reachable within my private network.

Next up was setting up a true second factor. That was an important key (haha) missing in my workflow. I had the first factor (something I know), but was lacking the second one (something I have). So I bought a set of hardware tokens and started setting them up where it made sense. First thing was using them as a second factor for my password vault. I also set it up for important accounts (Apple ID, Amazon, Paypal). The YubiKey 5 Series actually supports storing OTP codes on device, which allows you to use them as true second factors for any service that does not support FIDO2. I keep one token on my keychain, have a tiny one plugged into my computer, and stored one securely at home.

What’s next?

Being reminded of checking how to improve my digital hygiene was great. My main take away from this lesson (apart from actually doing the things described above) was to make this a regular thing in the future. So I’ve set up a reminder that reminds me of checking up on my security setup once in a while.

Reference: Andrej Karpathy - Digital hygiene

I totally agree with what Brent Simmons outlined as reasons for why NetNewsWire is not a web app. Especially this paragraph resonates with me:

My computer is not a terminal. It’s a world I get to control, and I can use — and, especially, make — whatever I want. I’m not stuck using just what’s provided to me on some other machines elsewhere: I’m not dialing into a mainframe or doing the modern equivalent of using only websites that other people control.

Yet it still made me wonder. Isn‘t it possible to create something like this as web app? Certainly not this nice and polished with all the features we‘d expect. A static HTML file that contains the JavaScript. Using localStorage for state.

Yeah, let’s just hope it never comes to that.

Reference: Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App in response to Complying With ‘Demand’ From Trump Administration, Apple Removes ICEBlock From App Store

The gist of this article is that a bad dependency array of a useEffect caused excessive API calls which led to an outage. Reading about their strategies for mitigating this I was wondering why there is no mention regarding catching the original issue. It’s all about scaling better and rolling back. But why not also handle such invalid useEffect arrays. One idea I recently stumbled upon was this eslint plugin (react-you-might-not-need-an-effect). Great name btw!

Reference: A deep dive into Cloudflare’s September 12, 2025 dashboard and API outage

Maximilian Szengel
Franziska-Schmitz-Str. 5
80634 München
Deutschland

Kontakt:
E-Mail: contact@maxsz.de

Reference: Steph Ango - How I use Obsidian

Connect

Find me on GitHub, Bluesky or Mastodon, and Instagram. You can also subscribe to my RSS feed.

For me, it’s simple. I love writing code, and I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy writing about it too.

Programming and Tools

Coding is one of my greatest passions. With AI reshaping how we develop and use tools, we’re in a fascinating period of change. This blog is where I’ll be sharing my journey through it.

Software and Beyond

I also plan to write about the software I use and love. I’ve always been drawn to software over hardware. To me, software is malleable, something I can shape with my thoughts alone. Hardware, in comparison, feels static and less approachable for a creator.

Photography and other Hobbies

I also plan to share a lot of my photography on the photos pages. Think of it as my personal, quiet corner of the internet. No algorithms, no likes, just a space for sharing how I’m evolving as a photographer.

In recent years, I’ve also gotten into weight lifting and cycling. I’m fascinated by the intersection of fitness, data, and the software developer’s mindset, which I’m excited to explore here.

Let’s go!

I’m just getting started. Setting up this blog and exploring how to make it mine.

Of course, we couldn’t resist indulging in some delicious Austrian food!

I also tried to get some action shots. But it wasn’t easy getting it right quickly while skiing.

Time for some coffee.