Cory Trimm’s Personal Blog

Automating Astro Deploys to AWS from GitHub Actions

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

This website deploys in <60 seconds. Learn why having 'systems' in place can help speed up delivery time & minimize risk with small deploys.

What is Cabeça de Queijo?

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Learn more about why I started and the tech stack behind Cabeça de Queijo - a Brazilian Green Bay Packers fan club based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Tracking Estimated Website Carbon Emissions for 15,000+ Gov Domains

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Read how I used GitHub Actions, puppeteer, and other tech to hack together a site in ~3 hours to track Estimated Website Carbon Emissions for Federal Websites.

What I wish someone told me before going into gov tech

Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

This is my take on another blog post titled 'What I Wish Someone Had Told Me' but after spending 4+ years in the Public Sector at the VA.

Backstage software template repository

Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Solving a need that was discussed on Hacker News to put as many Software Templates for Backstage into a single place for other teams to use

Building a REI resupply used inventory notifier

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Get notified of 'New' Used Gear. This was a humble attempt to help encourage people to minimize the impact on the Earth.

List of government design systems

Wed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

A design system is a collection of reusable components / standards that aid in digital product design & development.

So. Now what? Some brief reflection.

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Quickly writing and sharing what is next for me. I'll look back on this post in a month or so to see what all holds true.

Build something for yourself

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

After 1,000+ one-on-one mentor sessions, I often repeated some advice. This post embodies the most repeated, piece of advice I'd give to students.

Reflecting on Buildspace Nights & Weekends | season 5

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

42 Days - Start to Finish for the Final _buildspace season - In Short Pod - A Way to Curate & Create a Hyper-Personalized Podcast.

How to add Puppeteer to an AWS Lambda function

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

AWS isn't always straight forward. Here's a brief guide to adding a Lambda Layer with Puppeteer + Chromium to an AWS Lambda function execution environment

Training An AI Model To Create Backyard Sports Characters

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

A brief post on how I fine tuned my first ever text-to-image model on the characters from Backyard Sports

An AWS Certified AI Practitioner Quick Study Guide

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A brief post on how I prepared and passed the AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam with less than 20 hours of total study time

Practical Applications of AI in Personal Projects

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A comprehensive guide on implementing AI features in personal projects, from content enhancement to user experience improvements.

Making the Web Fun Again: Building a Digital Zen Garden

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Rediscovering the joy of building delightful web experiences through a digital Zen garden. A reminder that websites can be both technically sound and genuinely fun.

Open Sourcing Astro Themes

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I've created a couple free & open source software Astro themes in 2024. In 2025, I'm going to up the ante and release 1 theme every other month.

Reviewing the 2024 Federal AI Use Cases Inventory

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Diving into the massive 2024 Federal AI Use Cases Inventory to see how government agencies are actually using AI. Over 2,100 use cases? Let's break it down.

Building a Simple Gift Card Tracker with Modern Web Features

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A quick weekend project that turned into a fully-featured gift card management app with search, sort, and URL persistence - all built with vanilla JavaScript and modern UX patterns.

Open Sourcing My Gen AI Startup Landing Page Theme

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Built and released a free, modern Astro theme specifically for AI startups - complete with dark mode, pricing tables, and GitHub Pages deployment.

Reverse Engineering My Own App from Compiled AWS Code

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I accidentally deleted my local Email Bits repo and had no remote backup. Here's how I recovered the entire codebase from compiled Lambda functions and minified S3 assets.

Building Email Bits: A Modern HTML Email Template Library

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Email clients are still a mess. I built Email Bits to give developers production-ready HTML email templates they can actually own - plus AI-assisted customization for everyone else.

Building The Early Days: A Voice-First Parenting Journal

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I built a voice-to-text parenting journal before my daughter Lydia arrived. Speak your memories, get a written record - built for exhausted, one-handed new parents.

Little AI Projects: Experiments at the Intersection of Government, Civic Tech, and Productivity

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A roundup of small AI experiments I've been building - MCP servers, benefits navigators, policy engines, and local model fine-tuning - all exploring how AI can make government more accessible.

Using Synthetic Government Benefits Data for Reasoning Evaluation

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Why the question isn't 'can the model do arithmetic?' but 'does it know which rule to apply?'. Exploring synthetic data for evaluating reasoning in government benefits policy.

Introducing the Astro Skeuomorphism Theme: Tactile UI for the Modern Web

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Exploring the revival of tactile design on the web. A first look at my new open source Astro theme that embraces skeuomorphism and retro-inspired aesthetics.

Building a Production-Ready Government Website Starter with Astro + USWDS

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After years in government tech, I finally built the Astro starter I wish had existed when I was at the VA. USWDS 3.x, Section 508 compliant, bilingual out of the box.

AI Agent Identity Assurance: The NIST IAL/AAL Crosswalk

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

NIST's IAL/AAL was built for humans. When AI agents act on your behalf, the assurance levels still apply - the mapping just changes.

AI Agent Session Security: Prompt Injection and Dry Runs

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Browser-use agents can be hijacked by the pages they visit. Dry runs don't replicate production. Here's how to build safer sessions.

Building AI Agent-Aware Systems

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Most systems can't detect when an AI agent is acting. Here's how to build the token claims, policy surfaces, and audit trail that changes that.

Reviewing the 2025 Federal AI Use Cases Inventory

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

The 2025 Federal AI Use Case Inventory dropped: 3,611 use cases across 56 agencies, up from 2,133 last year. Here's what I found digging into the numbers.