Practical writing on Java, Spring, AI, and the craft of software engineering.
If you're building with Java and Spring (or trying to figure out where AI fits into your development workflow) you're in the right place. I write practical, beginner-friendly deep dives on Spring Boot, Spring AI, and software engineering fundamentals, collected here in chronological order.
Spring AI 2.0 Tool Calling: Build a Live Claude-Style UI
Build a Claude-style 'Calling tool...' UI with Spring AI 2.0's ToolCallingAdvisor. Stream live tool call events over SSE from the ChatClient advisor chain.
Embabel 1.0 Is Here: AI Agent Framework for Java Goes GA
Embabel 1.0 is GA. What Rod Johnson's AI agent framework for the JVM means for Java developers, what changed on the road to 1.0, and how to get started.
My Content Creation Workflow: 10 Stages From Idea to Published
My complete 10-stage content creation workflow for YouTube: ideation, packaging, AI rough cuts, repurposing videos into blog posts, Shorts, and a newsletter.
Self-Correcting Structured Output in Spring AI 2.0
Learn how Spring AI 2.0 validates LLM JSON against your schema and automatically retries failures with self-correcting structured output. A beginner guide.
Can You Use Java for AI? Why Java Is Better Positioned Than You Think
Can you use Java for AI? Yes. For building real AI applications it might be the better choice. Why the JVM, Spring AI, and your existing team are enough.
Spring Boot End of Life: Every 3.x Branch Is Now Unsupported
Spring Boot 3.5 reached end of life in June 2026 and every 3.x branch is now unsupported. What that means, and how to plan your Spring Boot 4 upgrade.
How to Kill a Process Running on a Port (Windows, macOS & Linux)
Port 8080 already in use? Learn how to find and kill the process running on a port on Windows, macOS, and Linux—with copy-paste commands for each.
Spring AI Tool Search: Stop Wasting Tokens on Tools You Don't Need
Spring AI 2.0's tool search brings dynamic tool discovery to Spring Boot—load tools on demand instead of into every request to cut token usage and cost.
Building Custom Spring AI Advisors for Tool Logging and Token Tracking
Learn to build custom Spring AI advisors with the BaseAdvisor interface to log available tools, track tool invocations, and count token usage on every LLM call.