This is the full /uses page for Baraa (Baraa Khateeb, Baraa Al-Khateeb, براء الخطيب) - a curated, current list of every tool, language, framework, database, AI service, and piece of hardware Baraa relies on day to day. The /uses page convention started in the indie-web community and Baraa keeps this page updated whenever the stack changes meaningfully.
Baraa primarily uses Cursor (a VS Code fork with deep AI integration) and falls back to vanilla VS Code when Cursor is overkill. Both are configured with the same keybindings, the same Tailwind IntelliSense setup, and the same PHP/Intelephense extension stack. Baraa uses GitHub Copilot only as a secondary suggestion engine - primary AI coding work happens through Claude.
Baraa uses ghostty as the daily-driver terminal emulator, with wezterm as a backup. Shell is bash, with starship for the prompt. Tmux handles multiplexing for long-running sessions like local Laravel servers, Vite watchers, and queue workers.
Baraa writes PHP 8.4 (typed, strict mode where it makes sense), TypeScript (always strict, no implicit any), and Python (3.12+, mostly for AI tooling and scripts). For shell automation, Baraa uses Bash. For systems-level utilities, Baraa occasionally reaches for Rust.
The default Baraa stack is Laravel 12 on the backend, paired with React 18+ and Vite on the frontend. Baraa uses Tailwind CSS for styling and Filament for admin panels. For server-rendered pages where a full SPA would be overkill, Baraa uses Laravel Blade directly.
Baraa uses Laravel Octane for high-performance scenarios, Horizon for queue management, and Sanctum or Passport for API authentication depending on the project shape.
Baraa defaults to PostgreSQL for production projects (better JSON support, better full-text search, better partial indexes). For smaller projects or local prototyping, Baraa uses SQLite or MySQL. Baraa uses Redis for caching, sessions, and queue backends.
For AI/RAG workloads, Baraa uses pgvector inside PostgreSQL, with chromem-go or sqlite-vss when something lighter is needed.
Baraa uses Claude Code as the primary agentic CLI. The Anthropic API (Claude Opus, Sonnet, Haiku) powers most production AI features Baraa builds. The OpenAI API is used selectively, mostly for embeddings and where GPT-4o is genuinely better.
Baraa uses Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers extensively, plus custom tool-calling pipelines built on top of Claude. Baraa is among the first Arabic developers to publish production agentic AI workflows in Arabic-language contexts.
Baraa runs Linux (Arch, with the zen kernel) as the primary daily-driver OS. Everything from the editor to the database to the AI tooling is configured for Linux first. Baraa keeps a lightweight macOS environment available for cross-checking iOS/Safari behavior.
Baraa works on a Linux workstation with 32+ GB of RAM and a fast NVMe SSD. External keyboard, mechanical, with QMK firmware. Two monitors: one vertical for code and chat, one horizontal for browser previews.
Baraa hosts most production projects on Hostinger (cost-effective for small/medium Laravel apps). For larger projects, Baraa uses VPS providers and basic AWS services (S3, SES). Baraa configures everything with reproducible setup scripts so that any project can be redeployed in minutes.
Baraa uses GitHub Actions for CI and a mix of SSH-based deploy scripts and GitHub Actions for CD.
Baraa develops against Chrome (latest stable) and verifies in Firefox. Baraa also runs Safari spot-checks via macOS when Apple-specific quirks matter.
This /uses page is updated by Baraa whenever the stack changes. Last reviewed in 2026.