From the Backlog to the Build Log
Week of August 29 - September 4, 2025
A note about this build log entry: I published this after the week it covers. DevNitro reconstructed a draft from work-related entries in my journal, Git commit history, and time tracking. I reviewed, edited, and approved the final post. The story reflects what I knew and built at the time.
For three weeks the MCP layer refused to launch. This week the tool call fired. The CLI called a my new CreateProject MCP server, a copy of an app landed on disk, and a Docker container started. The core loop of the product took its first breath, and most of the week was AI-assisted .NET development spent getting it there.
What I Worked On
The premise of DevNitro is easy to say and hard to build: an AI agent generates a .NET app and deploys it into a real container. The MCP layer that makes that possible has been the wall for three weeks. It came down this week.
It started on Saturday. I learned how to stand up stdio and http MCP servers with the MCP C# SDK, copied my CreateSite console app into an MCP server, and drove it from MCP Inspector to create a new site. That proved the server side. Then on Labor Day I spent the whole day getting the CLI to call a CreateProject MCP server through Ollama running gpt-oss:20b. When it fires, it works. The CLI calls the tool and a copy of the app lands on disk.
From there the target moved to the container. I split GCT out into a local NuGet folder so a generated app could pull the platform packages, then worked on serving a sample app (a WeatherChecker built from BlankSite) out of a Docker image. Ports and certs fought me for a day. By Thursday the image was building with cached NuGet packages, so a restore that used to take close to a minute now finishes in under a second. I also started a Workspace Agent, the piece the main DevNitro process talks to so it can read and write files inside the generated project.
What the AI Did Well
The rename finished in code this week. DevNitro.Web is fully off the old CodeSlinger name, the solution is restructured into Core, Cli, and Web, and the app consumes GCT as NuGet packages now. That is wide, tedious work with a high chance of stray typos, and it came out clean.
On the container side the AI was a strong pair for architecture. I spent real hours thinking through how to run a Docker image per project against tens of thousands of users, and it kept up its end of that conversation while I made the calls.
What Needed Correction
The breakthrough is not reliable yet. gpt-oss:20b will not consistently call the tool. Sometimes it needs prodding before it produces the JSON to fire CreateProject. When it decides to call, the call is good. Getting it to decide is a coin flip.
The first successful MCP call earlier in the week came from my own inference code rather than the model, which proved the wiring but not the intelligence. The docker MCP server I stood up on Wednesday failed the first time I tested it, and I did not get it working until Thursday. The Workspace Agent is a first pass I had to leave untested when I left for the evening.
What Shipped
Nothing to production. What exists now is the core loop in prototype form: the CLI takes a request, the model calls an MCP tool, the tool creates a project, and a Docker container starts. Three weeks ago that sentence was a diagram. Add the finished rename, the restructured solution, the GCT NuGet split, and a Dockerfile that restores in under a second.
The Numbers
| Category | Hours |
|---|---|
| Product / Features | 47h 23m |
| Content | 17h 28m |
| Total | 64h 50m |
Thirty-six hours on the prototype in a single week. That is what a breakthrough costs when it finally comes: a Labor Day at the desk and four more days chasing ports, certs, and a stubborn local model.
The reason DevNitro exists is to turn that loop, request in and running app out, into something anyone can run. This week it ran for me for the first time.
Week one was the decision. Week two was the rename and a working CLI. Week three was the fight to make MCP launch. This week the fight paid off. The prior two chapters: the rename week and last week's MCP grind. The new open thread: make the tool call reliable and get the Workspace Agent tested.
Curious how this site was built?
Watch the 5-minute walkthrough at devnitro.com →
0 Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Leave a comment