Shipping Fast(er): How I Used Claude Code to Release Chrome Webhook Extension 2.0

A Tale of Side Projects and Speed

There’s a unique satisfaction in shipping something you built for yourself. That feeling gets even better when you manage to revive a side project after a long pause—and ship not just a fix, but a full version bump.

This post is about Chrome Webhook Extension, a small tool I first wrote to make it easier to send browser data to a webhook (like a Discord channel, a Notion automation, or anything you can connect). It sat untouched for a while—until I decided to pick it up again with the help of Claude Code, an AI-powered coding agent. The result? A productive two-day burst that gave life to version 1.2 and then, less than 24 hours later, version 2.0.

Here’s what changed, and how AI helped me build faster.

What’s New in v2.0

If you were using the extension before, you might not notice radical UI changes—but under the hood, v2.0 introduces a more robust foundation and thoughtful improvements to workflows. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Webhook test mode: You can now test your webhook without sending real data. Super handy for debugging.
• Improved error handling: Webhook requests now catch and display error messages more transparently.
• Cleaner UI alignment: Better alignment and spacing across popup views.
• Code refactoring: The codebase is cleaner and easier to maintain, especially around popup logic and validation.
• Safer UX: Edge cases are now handled more gracefully when URLs or payloads are missing.

You can find the full release notes for v2.0 here, and v1.2 here.

Working With Claude Code: The Real Productivity Boost

Both the 1.2 and 2.0 versions were built using Claude Code, a development assistant built on top of Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 family. I primarily used Claude 3.5 Haiku, with some calls handled by Sonnet and Opus, depending on the complexity of the task. But most of the time, I didn’t have to choose—Claude Code’s agent handled that.

Here’s a fun stat:

• v1.2 took me 1h15 to build — and cost me \$3.02 of tokens
• v2.0 took me 1h40 — and cost me \$4.63 of tokens

That’s under 3 hours total for two solid updates to a production-ready extension, at a price point that’s cheaper than a decent lunch. What’s more interesting is how much Claude Code actually handled:

• Debugging issues I had previously written (but not committed yet)
• Suggesting clearer code structures overall
• Reworking event listener placement and associated logic
• Managing edge use cases and improving input sanitisation
• Handling a complete UX refactoring, moving from basic to polished while keeping PureCSS
• Helping draft the release notes and Chrome Web Store description
• Writing the GitHub logic to treat issues as a lightweight support ticketing system

In short: it felt like having a reliable mid-level dev on my team—one that needed some oversight, but consistently offered solid structure, relevant suggestions, and kept things moving forward. Definitely not junior-level like what IDE autocomplete or tools like Lovable tend to provide.

Making Side Projects Realistic Again

Before this update, this extension had been sitting mostly untouched. Like many devs, I have a backlog of ideas or half-finished tools that I want to complete but can’t justify sinking hours into after work. But pairing with Claude Code made the time investment feel much more feasible:

• The feedback loop is fast. Ask, try, tweak, ship.
• It doesn't get stuck or tired—or need you to write full spec docs.
• It helps re-enter old codebases by explaining and cleaning up context.
• It can even execute bash instructions, with per-command approval or predefined permission scopes. I let it handle git commit, push, and pull, but kept tag and rebase under manual control.
• This means it doesn’t just write code—it can ship the whole cycle if you let it.

What would have taken a full weekend of grumbling and Googling ended up being an evening project with real output.

What’s Next?

I’m planning a few more internal improvements, and maybe support for templating common payloads. But what really excites me is diving deeper into what Claude Code can do. I haven’t even tried connecting it to tools via the MCP protocol yet—imagine it working on my database, managing Netlify functions, or integrating directly with other cloud-native services.

There’s a lot more I want to explore, and I’ll definitely share if it turns into something interesting.

If you try it and have feedback, open an issue or ping me.

Final Thoughts

If you’re juggling a busy schedule and a drawer full of side projects, consider giving Claude Code or a similar AI dev tool a try. It won’t replace your judgement, but it will absolutely make it easier to get over the hump and just ship.

🔗 Chrome Webhook Extension on Chrome Web Store
🔗 Chrome Webhook Extension on GitHub
📦 Download v2.0