I Built a Star Wars Mandalorian Movie Countdown Site with React + Vite

Felix Helleckes — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 06:12:29 +0000

I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and with The Mandalorian & Grogu hitting theaters on May 22, 2026, I couldn't just sit and wait — I had to build something.

*So I created a countdown website: Mandalorian Cinema Countdown
*
What's on the site?
⏳ Live countdown timer (days, hours, minutes, seconds)
🌟 Animated starfield background
🎬 Embedded official trailer
👤 Character cards for Din Djarin & Grogu
📱 Fully responsive design
Tech Stack
React 18 with Vite
Pure CSS (no UI framework) — custom Star Wars-inspired dark theme with gold accents
Deployed on Netlify (free tier, zero config)
The Fun Part: Pure CSS Starfield
Instead of a canvas library, I went with a pure CSS animated starfield using layered box-shadow on pseudo-elements. It's lightweight and looks great:

.stars::before {
  content: '';
  position: fixed;
  width: 2px;
  height: 2px;
  background: transparent;
  box-shadow: /* 200 random positions generated */ ...;
  animation: twinkle 4s infinite alternate;
}

What I learned
Vite is ridiculously fast for React projects
Netlify deploys a Vite build in under 30 seconds
A well-chosen color palette (#C9A84C gold + near-black) carries a whole theme without needing images

I Built a Self-Improving AI Crypto Bot with Python and Kraken (Full Architecture)

Felix Helleckes — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:10:37 +0000

The Dream: A Bot That Learns from Its Mistakes
Most trading bots are static. You program a strategy (like RSI or MACD), and it executes until the market regime changes and you lose money. On my channel The Efficient Dev, I wanted to solve this.

I built a system that doesn't just trade—it reflects. It uses AI agents to analyze its own P&L and suggest optimizations. Here’s how I did it.

🛠️ The Tech Stack
To keep it "efficient" and 24/7 capable, I chose:

Language: Python 3.11+

Exchange: Kraken API (Robust and dev-friendly)

Brain: AI Agents (Analyzing trade history)

Environment: Raspberry Pi (Low power, high uptime)

🏗️ The System Architecture
The bot operates in a continuous loop, but with a twist. Instead of just Market Data -> Trade, it follows a Reflective Loop:

Ingestion: Pulling real-time OHLCV data from Kraken.

Strategy Execution: A technical analysis layer triggers potential entries.

The "Agent" Layer: This is the secret sauce. An AI agent reviews the last 24 hours of trades.

Question: "Why did we lose 2% on that ETH long?"

Action: Adjusts the volatility threshold for the next trade.

Autonomous Deployment: Running on a Raspberry Pi via a systemd service.

💻 Code Snippet: Connecting to Kraken
Here is a simplified look at how I handle the authenticated client:

Python
import krakenex
from pykrakenapi import KrakenAPI

def get_kraken_connection():
api = krakenex.API()
api.load_key('kraken.key') # Keep your keys safe!
return KrakenAPI(api)

The bot then uses this to fetch balances and execute trades

kraken = get_kraken_connection()
print(kraken.get_account_balance())
🧠 Why "Self-Improving"?
The core problem with algorithmic trading is Overfitting. By using an AI reflection layer, the bot identifies if a strategy is failing because of "bad luck" or because the "market logic" has shifted.

In the full video, I show the logs where the bot actually decides to stay out of the market because the AI agent detected high-frequency noise that the standard RSI couldn't see.

📺 Full Technical Walkthrough
I’ve documented the entire build process, the challenges with the Kraken API, and the exact logic of the AI agents in this video:

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/nTXojkvskGM

🚀 Get the Source Code
I’m a big believer in open source. You can find the repository for this project on my GitHub. Feel free to star it or fork it to build your own version!

👉 GitHub Repo: irgendwasmitfelix/TradingBot

Let's Discuss!
How do you handle risk management in your bots?

Do you think AI agents are the future of retail trading, or just hype?

I'll be in the comments answering questions!

DEV Community: Felix Helleckes

I Built a Star Wars Mandalorian Movie Countdown Site with React + Vite

I Built a Self-Improving AI Crypto Bot with Python and Kraken (Full Architecture)

The bot then uses this to fetch balances and execute trades