Project Diary — Day 25

April 4, 2026  |  Session Focus: curl with AI deep-dive
25Day
1New Pages
2Files Patched
1/0Orphans/Broken

Session Summary

Day 25 opened on Saturday April 4th. Clean restart with tar package including 2DO-LIST-DAY25.html, 2026-03-31-PROJECT-DIARY.html, about.html, ripgrep.html, deep-dive-index.html, and cli-tools-start-here.html.

Session opened with a checker run showing one orphan — collaboration/addendum/2026-04-04_Day25_Notes.txt — which is intentional. The addendum directory and file are already referenced in the Day 25 diary card. The orphan resolves when the card is inserted into project-diary.html. No corrective action required.

Primary content work was the curl deep-dive page. curl was the designated Day 25 primary deliverable per the 2DO list. The AI integration angle is strong: every major AI API — Anthropic, OpenAI, local ollama — is reachable with curl from the shell. No SDK, no Python environment, no additional dependencies. The page covers direct Anthropic API calls, a reusable ask_claude.sh script, the ollama REST API, the full rg→jq→curl→jq pipeline for air-gapped log analysis, and a shell function wrapper for quick AI access from any prompt.

The LearnLinux candidates (bat, jc, sed/awk primer) were identified but deferred to Day 26 — curl was the correct priority and the session closed cleanly without overreaching.

New Pages This Session

deep-dive/curl.html — NEW

Full CLI tool deep-dive page for curl. Sections: What Is curl, Installation (dnf/apt, version note for AlmaLinux 9 7.76+), Basic Usage (17-row flag reference table, GET/POST/auth patterns), SysAdmin Use Cases (health checking with timing breakdown, TLS certificate checking, downloads with integrity verification, internal API testing, monitoring scripts, Kubernetes API), curl + AI Tools (Anthropic API directly, ask_claude.sh script, ollama REST API, full rg+jq+curl+jq pipeline, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, curl+jq pairing, curl+rg fetch-and-filter, reusable ask() shell function), ~/.curlrc configuration, Honest Assessment, Related Tools. 802 lines. vnu clean.

Files Patched This Session

deep-dive/deep-dive-index.html — PATCHED

curl card added to the 🐧 AI for Unix/Linux section, after the ripgrep card. Last updated date bumped to April 4, 2026. vnu clean.

deep-dive/cli-tools-start-here.html — PATCHED

Four additions to integrate curl into the toolchain documentation:

Last updated date bumped to April 4, 2026. vnu clean.

Content Planning — Next Sessions

LearnLinux candidates correctly deferred from Day 25 — ready for Day 26:

Format templates needed from LearnLinux before generating: one CMDS page and one EXPANDED page to match established style.

Session Close Protocol

Observations

The curl page landed cleanly on the first vnu pass — no errors. The ripgrep format is now well-established enough that a new tool page can be generated and validated in a single session without rework cycles.

The AI integration angle for curl is genuinely strong. The mental model shift is simple: AI APIs are REST APIs. SysAdmins already know how to call REST APIs with curl. The only new elements are the API key in the header and the JSON body structure. The jq -Rs . trick for converting multi-line stdin to a JSON string is the one technique that needs explicit teaching — the page covers it.

The addendum directory pattern established today is useful. Session notes in collaboration/addendum/ linked from the diary card keep working context inside the site structure without polluting the main content directories.


cmh — AI Education Project Day 25 — April 4, 2026
Next session: Day 26 — LearnLinux bat/jc/sed-awk candidates