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.
The Ralph Loop: Automate AI Coding Tasks in Java
The Ralph Loop is a bash script that runs your AI coding agent with a fresh context every iteration. Here's how it works and how I used it to build a Java CLI.
OpenTelemetry with Spring Boot 4: The New Starter
Learn how to use the new spring-boot-starter-opentelemetry in Spring Boot 4 to add observability with traces, metrics, and logs—no Actuator required.
Building a Spring Boot 4 REST API the Fast Way
Learn how to build a REST API with Spring Boot 4 in minutes. This tutorial shows you how to create CRUD endpoints using Java records and the @RestController annotation.
Loading Resources in Spring Boot
Learn how to load resources in Spring Boot using the Resource interface. This tutorial covers three approaches for loading files from the classpath, filesystem, and URLs.
Spring Security 7 Multi-Factor Authentication: Complete Tutorial with @EnableMultiFactorAuthentication
Learn how to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) in Spring Boot 4 using Spring Security 7's new @EnableMultiFactorAuthentication annotation. Step-by-step tutorial with one-time token login and custom PIN codes.
Spring Boot 4 Modularization: Fix Missing Auto-Configuration
Spring Boot 4 broke your auto-configuration? Learn which modular starters you now need—Flyway, H2, and the test starters behind @AutoConfigureMockMvc.
MockMvcTester vs RestTestClient: Which one Should You Use in Spring Boot 4?
A comparison of MockMvcTester and RestTestClient for testing Spring Boot web applications, exploring when to use each approach and their key differences.
Spring JMS Client: A Complete Guide to JmsClient in Spring Boot 4
Master the Spring JMS Client with this complete Spring Boot 4 JmsClient tutorial. Learn when to choose JMS over Kafka, configure message conversion, and send messages using Spring's fluent API.
Spring Data AOT Repositories: Faster Startup and Build-Time Query Validation
Learn how Spring Data AOT Repositories move query processing from runtime to compile time, reducing startup times and memory usage, plus how to validate repository methods at build time.