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.
Filtering by tag: Java
Embabel MCP Servers and Tools: Supercharging Your Agentic Flows on the JVM
Learn how to add tools and MCP servers to your Embabel agents in Java. Build a blog writing agent that can research topics, calculate reading time, and generate front matter.
Embabel First Look: Building Agentic Flows on the JVM
A first look at Embabel, a framework by Rod Johnson for building agentic AI flows on the JVM. Learn how to create a blog writing agent with goal-oriented action planning.
GraphQL for Java Developers
Learn how to build scalable GraphQL APIs with Java 26 and Spring Boot 4. This course walks you through schema-first development, batch loading, unions, Query by Example, AOT repositories, and more.
Spring, Build Me a Coding Agent
Learn how to build an autonomous coding agent in Spring AI using the Spring AI Agent Utils library. This tutorial walks you through creating a CLI-based agent with file system access, shell commands, and skills.
JEP 500: Prepare to Make Final Mean Final in JDK 26
JDK 26 introduces JEP 500, which warns developers when final fields are mutated through reflection. Here's what this means for your Java code and how to prepare for the future.
Building a Spring Initializr Terminal UI with Java
How I built a terminal user interface for the Spring Initializr using Tambu UI, a new Java TUI framework, and GraalVM native images to streamline my development workflow.
I Tried OpenAI's New Codex Agent. Here are my First Impressions (It's Really Good)
OpenAI released Codex, a new GUI for their coding agent. I put it to the test by building a vending machine CLI application in Java 25 with Maven, JUnit 6, and JSpecify null safety annotations.
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.
Spring Boot 4 Modularization: Fix Auto-Configuration Issues After Upgrading
Upgraded to Spring Boot 4 and features stopped working? Learn how the new modular auto-configuration architecture affects your migration and how to fix common issues like the H2 console not appearing.
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.