Week 3: Our First User Made Me Realize Everything Was Wrong

Monday, January 15th - 9:23 AM

Big milestone - pushed CodeContext to npm!

$ npm publish codecontext-cli
+ codecontext-cli@0.0.1

$ npm install -g codecontext-cli
/usr/local/bin/codecontext -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/codecontext-cli/bin/codecontext

$ codecontext --version
0.0.1

WE'RE LIVE! 🚀

Celebrated with Isabella and Mango. Well, I celebrated. Isabella smiled politely. Mango ate a sock.

Monday, January 15th - 2:47 PM

Posted on Reddit: "I built a CLI that generates documentation automatically"

First comment: "Another documentation tool? 🙄"

Second comment: "Looks interesting, trying it now..."

Third comment: "This is exactly what I needed!"

Refreshing Reddit every 30 seconds. This is healthy, right?

Tuesday, January 16th - 10:15 AM

FIRST REAL USER!

Someone named Alex from Berlin DMed me:

"Hey, tried CodeContext on our codebase. Love the idea but... it's not working great. Mind if I share some feedback?"

My response: "YES PLEASE DESTROY ME" (but professionally)

Tuesday, January 16th - 4:30 PM

Alex's feedback was... brutal. But exactly what I needed.

Their codebase:

// What CodeContext generated:
/**
 * Handles the request
 * @param req - The request
 * @param res - The response
 */
export const handleData = withValidation(
  withCache(
    withLogger(
      async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
        const input = await parseAndValidate(req.body);
        const output = await transformData(input);
        return sendResponse(res, output);
      }
    )
  )
);

// What it SHOULD have generated:
/**
 * Handles incoming API requests for data transformation
 * 
 * @description
 * Processes validated requests with caching and logging.
 * Parses input data, applies transformation logic,
 * and returns formatted responses.
 * 
 * Middleware stack:
 * 1. withValidation - Validates request schema
 * 2. withCache - Caches results for 5 minutes
 * 3. withLogger - Logs to monitoring service
 * 
 * @param {Request} req - Express request object
 * @param {Response} res - Express response object
 * 
 * @returns {Promise<void>} Sends JSON response
 * 
 * @example
 * POST /api/transform
 * Body: { data: [...], format: "json" }
 * 
 * @throws {ValidationError} If request body is invalid
 * @throws {ParseError} If data format is incorrect
 */

Alex was right. CodeContext was generating documentation, but not understanding the code.

Wednesday, January 17th - 3:00 AM

Couldn't sleep. Completely rewrote the context engine:

// Version 1: Naive approach
function analyzeFunction(node: FunctionNode) {
  return {
    name: node.name,
    params: node.params,
    returns: guessReturnType(node)
  };
}

// Version 2: Context-aware approach
function analyzeFunction(node: FunctionNode, context: CodeContext) {
  // Look at imports
  const imports = context.findImports();
  
  // Analyze middleware/decorators
  const wrappers = extractWrappers(node);
  
  // Check call sites
  const usages = context.findUsages(node.name);
  
  // Read related files
  const relatedCode = context.getRelatedCode(node);
  
  // NOW generate documentation
  return generateSmartDocs(node, {
    imports,
    wrappers,
    usages,
    relatedCode
  });
}

The difference was night and day.

Wednesday, January 17th - 6:45 PM

Isabella: "Have you eaten today?"

Me: "Coffee has calories."

Isabella: "That's not food."

Me: "Coffee is bean soup."

Isabella: Takes away laptop "Dinner. Now."

Mango: Wags tail, has definitely eaten my shoe

Thursday, January 18th - 11:30 AM

Sent Alex the new version:

$ codecontext generate --context-aware

Analyzing codebase structure...
✓ Found 12 middleware functions
✓ Detected Express.js patterns
✓ Identified 3 service layers
✓ Mapped 47 API endpoints

Generating contextual documentation...
✓ Generated docs for 312 functions
✓ Added 89 code examples
✓ Linked 156 related functions
✓ Created 15 architecture diagrams

Documentation quality score: 94/100 ⭐

Alex's response: "Holy shit. This is incredible."

I may have cried a little.

Friday, January 19th - 2:00 PM

More feedback rolling in:

Sarah (Frontend Dev): "Can it handle React components?"

Marcus (DevOps): "What about Docker configs?"

Priya (Team Lead): "We need it to understand our custom framework"

Current supported formats: JavaScript

Formats requested: Everything

Time to pivot from "JavaScript documentation tool" to "Universal documentation engine"

Saturday, January 20th - 5:00 AM

Built a plugin system:

// Core engine
interface DocumentationPlugin {
  name: string;
  filePatterns: string[];
  parse(file: File): AST;
  analyze(ast: AST, context: Context): Analysis;
  generate(analysis: Analysis): Documentation;
}

// React plugin
const reactPlugin: DocumentationPlugin = {
  name: 'react',
  filePatterns: ['**/*.jsx', '**/*.tsx'],
  parse: (file) => parseJSX(file),
  analyze: (ast, context) => {
    // Understand props, state, hooks
    // Analyze component hierarchy
    // Detect patterns
  },
  generate: (analysis) => {
    // Generate component documentation
    // Include usage examples
    // Add Storybook integration
  }
};

// Now CodeContext is extensible!

Sunday, January 21st - 9:00 PM

Week 3 stats:

Users:

• NPM downloads: 847
• GitHub stars: 124
• Active users: ~50
• Angry users: 3
• Happy users: 47
• Users named Alex who changed everything: 1

Code improvements:

- Simple AST parsing
+ Context-aware analysis

- JavaScript only
+ Plugin architecture

- Basic documentation
+ Smart documentation with examples

- "It works"
+ "It actually helps"

Personal stats:

• Coffee consumed: 127 cups
• Times Isabella saved me from starvation: 12
• Shoes destroyed by Mango: 3
• Hours of sleep: Still not enough
• Motivation level: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

Biggest lesson:

Your first user will show you everything that's wrong with your product. And that's the best gift they can give you.

Alex from Berlin, if you're reading this - thank you. You turned CodeContext from a neat idea into something actually useful.

What's Next:

Week 4 goals:

1. Launch plugin marketplace
2. Add support for 5 more languages
3. Build VS Code extension
4. Remember to walk Mango
5. Stop living on coffee

Isabella just looked over my shoulder and said: "You forgot 'spend time with girlfriend' on that list."

She's right. Again.

Building in public is terrifying and amazing. Follow the journey: @yonasvalentin