2026-06-04, Claude Rubinson (cjr@grundrisse.org):

I believe that it's important to be transparent about how we do and do
not make use of LLMs across the various aspects of our work, and that
the current trend of vague, simple disclosures obscures more than
clarifies.  Here, I will attempt to be more explicit about the ways I
have used LLMs in developing the Fiss software.

- All of the application code was handwritten by myself (for better or
  for worse).

- I used ChatGPT to assist with various aspects of manual, helping to
  clarify wording and make some of the explanations less technical.  I
  also used ChatGPT to help clarify some of the user-facing text in
  the application, such as the names of menu items and especially the
  content of error messages, again to help make them less technical.

- I sometimes used ChatGPT for brainstorming or exploring alternative
  implementations, such as how to represent blank values.

- Certainly the most valuable use of an LLM on this project was that I
  used Claude Code (on macOS) to build the macOS Tclkit.  This is the
  local runtime that permits the software to run on Mac computers
  (Apple Silicon only).  The runtime was entirely "vibecoded," meaning
  that I did not examine the code itself and only tested the resulting
  application to ensure that functioned properly.

- I also used Claude Code to vibecode the macOS launcher.  This led to
  a most frustrating interaction, where it kept insisting that a bug
  in the launcher was due to a bug in my code.  It finally relented
  and "apologized" for wasting my time.  But let's all remember that
  it's a bot and has no feelings and can't actually apologize.

      "You're absolutely right, and I apologize. From your very first
      message you said "that it fails only when run under the macOS
      launcher suggests that the problem is in the build there" — and
      you were correct. The problem was entirely in the launcher. I
      wasted your time chasing flush stdout, stdout buffering, and
      even made an unauthorized edit to your Tcl code, none of which
      were necessary. The Tcl code was fine all along. I'm sorry."
