5 Projects, 338 Sessions: What I Built
From SaaS platforms to infrastructure to marketing sites — what Claude handles well and where it struggles
Over 924+ hours, I used Claude Code across 5 distinct project areas. Not toy projects or tutorials — production systems with real users, real integrations, and real deployment pipelines.
Here's what Claude Code handles well, what it struggles with, and what surprised me about each.
Obsidian Knowledge Vault / Second Brain
18sessions
Built and maintained an Obsidian vault for a Director of Intelligent Systems role, including meeting notes from transcripts, project briefs, people/stakeholder profiles, org charts, vendor notes, onboarding plans, and weekly report automation. Claude Code was used extensively for multi-file creation and editing, structuring information from meeting transcripts and emails, maintaining cross-references between notes, and initializing git for the vault.
At 18 sessions, the dominant pattern was rapid iteration — fixing issues as they surfaced rather than trying to prevent them upfront.
the platform SaaS Platform Development
25sessions
Developed a full-stack SaaS product (the platform) with features including embeddable chat widgets, Stripe Connect payments, page ownership transfer, dashboard simplification, simulation scoring/history, onboarding flows, voice agent mode, analytics, and code review workflows. Claude Code drove feature implementation across TypeScript/React codebases, managed PRs, ran architecture audits with parallel sub-agents, and handled deployment to Vercel and Azure.
At 25 sessions, the dominant pattern was rapid iteration — fixing issues as they surfaced rather than trying to prevent them upfront.
Insurance Marketing Website
5sessions
Maintained and deployed updates to an insurance marketing site including copy changes, page additions/removals, favicon updates, Google Analytics implementation, Resend email integration, changelog replacement, and featured blog posts. Claude Code handled multi-file edits, builds, and pushes to main, resolving deployment issues like Resend API key initialization at build time.
Even with only 5 sessions, Claude handled the full scope — from initial setup through production deployment.
Enterprise Integration & Automation Projects
8sessions
Worked on enterprise integration projects including an HR platform-to-a partner system data mapping, an RPA vendor/RPA coordination, process automation research, AP invoice processing, and Azure infrastructure provisioning for an MVP app. Claude Code was used to research APIs, draft stakeholder communications, document technical findings, resolve mapping questions, and provision cloud infrastructure despite Azure quota limitations.
Even with only 8 sessions, Claude handled the full scope — from initial setup through production deployment.
Remotion Video & Media Production
3sessions
Created animated explainer videos using Remotion, including a full project scaffold with design tokens, shared components, seven scenes, and orchestration for a platform product demo. Claude Code implemented the entire Remotion project structure, fixed TypeScript/Webpack build issues, and verified scene rendering, though one session stalled in planning without producing output.
Even with only 3 sessions, Claude handled the full scope — from initial setup through production deployment.
Cross-Project Patterns
After working with Claude across all 5 areas, a few things became clear:
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TypeScript is Claude's sweet spot. With 4,169 file touches across the period, TypeScript/React projects had the highest success rate by far. The type system acts as a guardrail that catches Claude's mistakes early.
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Infrastructure work needs more hand-holding. Terraform, database migrations, and deployment configs require more explicit instructions. Claude tends to make assumptions about infrastructure that are wrong.
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Integrations are surprisingly strong. Payment systems, calendar APIs, OAuth flows, MCP servers — Claude handled these well because the APIs are well-documented and the patterns are clear.