No “top 10 tools” listicle. Just an honest look at what we actually use every day to build production software at Vindico.

AI & Development

Claude Code — Our primary AI coding agent. Our proprietary toolkits are built on top of this. It handles scaffolding, implementation of defined patterns, test generation, and documentation.

VS Code — Still the editor. Nothing’s replaced it.

GitHub — Version control, code review, CI/CD via GitHub Actions. Every client has access to their repo from day one.

Communication

Slack — Primary async communication. Every client gets a dedicated channel. We post daily updates and share Loom links here.

Loom — Async video walkthroughs. We record 3–5 minute videos showing what we built and explaining our thinking. Clients can watch on their schedule. This has replaced at least half the meetings we used to have.

Google Meet — For the sync calls that do need to happen: sprint planning, demos, retrospectives.

Project Management

Linear — Our preference for sprint tracking. Clean, fast, designed for engineering teams. If a client has a strong preference for Jira or another tool, we’ll use that instead — but we always recommend Linear.

Design

Figma — Design files, prototypes, component libraries. Clients get view access and can comment directly.

Infrastructure & Deployment

AWS / GCP / Vercel — Depends on the project. We’re platform-agnostic and choose based on the client’s needs, existing infrastructure, and cost profile.

Terraform — Infrastructure as code. If it’s not in the repo, it doesn’t exist.

Docker — Containerised everything. Consistent environments from development through production.

Testing

Vitest / Jest — Unit and integration testing. Generated by our AI toolkits, reviewed by engineers.

Playwright — End-to-end testing for web applications.

What We Don’t Use

Timesheets. Gantt charts. Status meetings that could have been a Slack message. Three layers of project management between you and the person writing your code.

The best tools are the ones that get out of the way and let the work happen. We optimise for signal, not ceremony.