Notes from the studio
Product decisions, technical lessons, and reflections on building software from Latin America. Full transparency about what works and what doesn't — yet.
- Jul 16, 20267 min read
NextAuth v5 (Auth.js) in production with Google + email/password
How I set up NextAuth v5 in ReclamaAI with Google OAuth and email/password coexisting on the same account. Sessions, callbacks, account linking, and the gotchas that almost made me go back to Clerk.
AuthenticationStack decisions - Jul 6, 20266 min read
From Tailwind v3 to v4: the honest migration
I migrated three VantLabs projects to Tailwind v4. What got better, what hurt, what changed in paradigm, and why CSS-based config is better than it looks at first glance.
TailwindStack decisionsVantLabs - Jun 25, 20266 min read
Bootstrapping from Colombia: the cost categories that matter
A map of the real costs of running a software studio from Colombia without external investment: what weighs, what doesn't, and why geography is more of an advantage than people tell you.
Building in publicLatam contextVantLabs - Jun 4, 20266 min read
The cron job that cost three days: real BullMQ + Upstash edge cases
A specific BullMQ + Upstash Redis bug that took three days to find and half an hour to fix. The story and the lesson on why idempotent retries aren't optional.
Stack decisionsReclamaAI - May 28, 20267 min read
Tutela in 4 minutes: anatomy of ReclamaAI's most-used document
Breaking down a real Colombian tutela generated by ReclamaAI: what Claude writes, what comes from the legal RAG, what the team reviews, and why structure matters more than words.
LegaltechReclamaAI - May 21, 20267 min read
Why I use Postgres + Prisma for everything (even when I "shouldn't")
The boring defense of a not-trendy stack. Why Postgres + Prisma is still the right default for 95% of products, even in 2026 with DynamoDB, MongoDB and Drizzle around.
DatabaseStack decisions - May 14, 20265 min read
Resend as our single inbox: one provider for every VantLabs product
How VantLabs centralizes transactional email with Resend across vantlabs.io, ReclamaAI and VantFi. Shared templates, verified domains, real costs.
Stack decisionsVantLabs - May 7, 20267 min read
Designing for non-power-user audiences in Latin America
When you build a digital product for non-power-user audiences in Latin America, almost every default you learned in Silicon Valley fails. Here are the ones that hurt most.
Latam contextBuilding in publicReclamaAI - Apr 30, 20266 min read
VantFi in sprint 3: what we changed in the MVP after testing with 10 people
Ten real people used the first VantFi prototype for a week. What we learned, what we cut, what we redesigned, and the three bugs nobody saw coming.
Building in publicVantFiFlutter