DEV Community: Cloud Native Engineer

Pinning GitHub Actions for Reproducibility and Security

Cloud Native Engineer — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 01:07:12 +0000

Version tags like actions/checkout@v5 are mutable - maintainers can move them, re-release them, or force-push. Your workflow could run different code tomorrow without you changing anything.

Pin to commit SHAs instead. One command to get the SHA: gh api repos/actions/checkout/commits/v5.0.1 --jq '.sha'

Then use it: actions/checkout@93cb6efe18208431cddfb8368fd83d5badbf9bfd # v5.0.1

Full article: https://cloudnativeengineer.substack.com/p/github-actions-reproducibility-security

Claude Agent Skills: Teaching Your AI Agent to Wear Multiple Hats

Cloud Native Engineer — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 01:02:59 +0000

Tired of bloated system prompts stuffed with every doc your agent might need? Claude Agent Skills use progressive context loading - the agent loads only what's relevant when it's needed.

A skill is just a folder with a SKILL.md file. Copy between projects, share via Git, no special setup. Skills auto-invoke when Claude recognizes a matching task.

Full article: https://cloudnativeengineer.substack.com/p/ai-agent-wear-multiple-hats

Talk to your AI agent: the ultimate vibe coding

Cloud Native Engineer — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:43:59 +0000

Your fingers are the bottleneck.

I used to think voice-to-text was a gimmick. Something for people who couldn't be bothered to type. Then a colleague at work started whispering into a microphone at his desk, and I watched him write prompts faster than I could think them.

Here's what clicked: you're not dictating code. Brackets, indentation, semicolons, that stuff requires precision. But conversational prompts to an AI agent? That's different. The agent handles your "umms" and pauses. It corrects your spelling. It catches your meaning even when you're rambling.

My grandfather was doing this 30 years ago. I watched him read Pinocchio passages to Dragon NaturallySpeaking in 1997, training it to understand his voice. Now I'm doing the same thing, except the AI actually understands me.

This reminds me of when I learned touch-typing at university. Someone said using all ten fingers was a must. I thought it was pointless. Months of boring drills. But 15 years later? Massive dividends.

Voice-to-text is the same. It feels silly at first. Awkward. Then you realize you can whisper prompts in a noisy office and the AI catches everything. Your thoughts flow faster than your fingers ever could.

The 1% improvement principle from Atomic Habits applies here. Small changes that seem pointless compound into something massive over 5, 10, 15 years.

I wrote the notes for my latest article in 30 minutes using voice. Typing would have taken hours.

What's your 1%? What small change could you make today that compounds over a decade?

Full article: https://cloudnativeengineer.substack.com/p/ultimate-vibe-coding

Cloud Native Engineer is back

Cloud Native Engineer — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 09:45:28 +0000

Things are finally moving again! 🚢

the Cloud Native Engineer newsletter is back in full swing after a quiet year.

Here's what's been happening:

✨ Brand new logo that better represents what we're all about
🎨 Consistent character designs across the newsletter
📝 Two fresh articles published in two weeks
🗂️ Completely reorganized "Start Here" page with dedicated categories for Kubernetes, System Design, DevOps, and Tools

The cargo is loaded, and we're ready to sail into more technical deep dives, practical insights, and cloud-native goodness.

Thanks for sticking with me during the quieter period. Exciting things ahead!

TopMate account

Cloud Native Engineer — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:27:56 +0000

🌟 Exciting News, Everyone! 🌟

I’m thrilled to announce my new mentorship page on Topmate!

Whether you’re navigating cloud-native technologies or looking to ace your system design interviews, I'm here to support your journey!

Feel free to check out my Topmate page and join me on this journey!

https://topmate.io/gsantoro

The DuckDB Local UI

Cloud Native Engineer — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 11:31:52 +0000

The DuckDB Local UI
DuckDB introduces a local UI starting from version 1.2.1. The UI is a web page served by a HTTP server running on localhost.

Key points:
• Local Web Interface: Runs queries locally with a full-featured web UI.
• Database Management: Allows exploration of tables and views in attached databases.
• Notebooks: Supports organization of work into named notebooks with SQL statement execution.
• Column Explorer: Provides a summary of results with insights into each column.
• MotherDuck Integration: Optionally connects to MotherDuck for cloud data warehouse capabilities.

Cloud Native Engineer - table of contents

Cloud Native Engineer — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:35:21 +0000

Unlock the power of Cloud Native Engineering: Expert guides & hands-on learning for Kubernetes, DevOps & tools.

I have created a table of contents page to navigate my newsletter.

Key points:

💻 Kubernetes Essentials: Learn the fundamentals of Kubernetes, including tips for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam, preparing for the exam, and discovering Kubernetes dev environments in 2023.
📈 Elastic & Observability Fundamentals: Understand Elasticsearch, log data management, and how to deploy Fleet and Elastic Agent on Elastic Cloud Kubernetes, including best practices for setting up Elasticsearch on Kubernetes for development and production environments.
💡 System Design Principles: Explore the role of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) in system design, enhancing software design with diagrams as code, and understanding what happens when you type a URL into your browser.
🤖 DevOps & Tools: Master the use of open-source tools like Nushell, Jc, and Steampipe, which can revolutionize command-line workflows, making data processing more efficient and structured.
💻 Programming Fundamentals: Learn effortless Python development with Nix, effortless Python development with Nix, and the use of the UV package manager for better Python dependency management.

UV Package Manager: Better Python Dependency Management

Cloud Native Engineer — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:26:59 +0000

Elevate your #Python practice with Uv, the developer-friendly package manager of modern development workflows 🚀

Key points:

✨ Uv Overview: Uv is a flexible, Python package manager designed for modern development workflows.
📈 Key Features: Uv includes features like dependency management, caching, and a lightweight installer.
💻 Integration Support: Uv integrates seamlessly with popular Python development tools and libraries.

The outline:
• The story so far
• UV adopts the industry's best practices
• Why is UV better than other solutions?
• How do I use UV in my development tools?
• Bonus feature: Inline dependencies

Automation to track Substack subscribers

Cloud Native Engineer — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:04:58 +0000

📊 Substack Subscriber Tracker Now Available on Gumroad
I've just released the automation I use daily to track subscribers across my newsletters, including Cloud Native Engineer.

For $7 (launch price), you'll get:
• Make.com automation workflow (JSON file)
• Complete setup documentation
• Instructions for Gmail, Notion, and Discord integration
• Daily subscriber reports with source tracking
• Automatic subscriber database backup

This is version 3 of an automation I've been using and refining for over a year. While you need some technical familiarity with Make.com and third-party integrations to set this up, I'm available to help if you get stuck.

The price will increase in two weeks, so grab it now if you're interested!

Need help setting everything up? I also offer personalized setup services - just reach out on https://mentors.to/gsantoro.

P.S. Part 1 of the documentation is freely available in my newsletter at https://cloudnativecreator.substack.com/p/substack-subscribers-automation-part-1 if you want to see what's involved before purchasing.

➡️ Gumroad Link: https://cloudnativeeng.gumroad.com/l/substack-subscribers-automation

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: which one is the best model?

Cloud Native Engineer — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 15:08:42 +0000

DeepSeek-R1 is primed to disrupt the entire AI industry.

Look at what happened to the stock market!

But how does it differ from OpenAI's model?

OpenAI: generates chains-of-thought data using a normal model and fine-tunes it for reasoning
DeepSeek: uses reinforcement learning to train its model for reasoning without generating large amounts of data

Benefits:

DeepSeek's approach can reason better than the original model as it generates new chains of thought

Limitations:

DeepSeek's approach is restricted to chains-of-thought that can be verified mechanistically, mainly useful for coding and mathematics

Transfer Learning in Reasoning Models:

There is ongoing research to see if reasoning models trained on one domain can be effective in other domains

Dark Reader - Chrome Extension Overview

Cloud Native Engineer — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 11:35:26 +0000

Enable dark mode for all websites.
Protect your eyes during your night coding with Dark Reader

By far the best Chrome extension for dark mode.

Key points:

Eye Care: Dark Reader inverts bright colors, creating high contrast and easy-to-read content.
Customization Options: Adjust the brightness, contrast, sepia filter, and font settings to suit your preferences.
Privacy Guarantee: Dark Reader doesn't show ads, collect or use user data, and is fully open-source.

A Thank You to my 1K Subscribers (And How Being Seen Changed Everything)

Cloud Native Engineer — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:35:16 +0000

A Thank You to my 1K Substack Subscribers (And How Being Seen Changed Everything)

Key points:

🤩 Gaining Momentum with a Paywall-Free Approach: Removing paywall and engaging with community led to rapid growth
💡 Embracing the Power of Social Networks: Connection with fellow creators and readers driven engagement and audience growth
📈 The Impact of Substack Notes on Content Visibility: Sharing on Substack Notes generated high engagement, clicks, and new followers
📄 Consistency is Key but Not Enough: Quality content essential, but alone won't attract a significant audience without proper promotion