Nikita Makarov: NotesNotes on design systems, AI agents, building and travel.https://hydroburner.pro/notesenHow this site is built: Astro, one tokens file and an agent that follows a briefhttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/how-this-site-is-builthttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/how-this-site-is-builtA static Astro site with native CSS, a three.js sphere and a cursor field. What is in the stack, how I worked with Claude Code, and how I got the LCP from 2.6 to 1.66 seconds.Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTBuildingAI and agents7 places I use AI agents in design work, and where I stophttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/ai-agents-design-workflowhttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/ai-agents-design-workflowTicket clustering, design systems in Figma, plugins and web tools, a full-stack app, native apps, a hackathon game with 3D assets and this site. What I hand to AI agents, what I keep, and how I check the result.Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI and agentsA settings panel that sells: ~20% more self-serve upgrades from locked stateshttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/locked-states-plghttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/locked-states-plgInstead of hiding advanced privacy settings from cheaper plans, I showed them locked. How a tooltip and an Upgrade button turned a utility menu into a growth channel.Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTDesign systems21 days to 14: how a solo designer won resources for a design systemhttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/design-system-buy-inhttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/design-system-buy-inI had no team and no budget for a design system. I had one task measured twice, a pitch to the CEO and CTO, and 6 hours a week as the result.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTDesign systemsI skipped design tokens in 2020. The migration took 6 months in 2023https://hydroburner.pro/notes/tokens-debthttps://hydroburner.pro/notes/tokens-debtI started a design system with hardcoded values to ship faster. Three years later the move to semantic tokens took more than six months. What I would do on day one.Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTDesign systems