My Day-to-Day Software Stack — September 2026

I want to periodically record the software, tools, and services I actually use in day-to-day life.

This isn’t meant to be a list of the “best” tools or recommendations. It’s simply a snapshot of my personal software stack at this point in time.

A few years from now, it should be interesting to look back and see which tools survived, which disappeared, and how my workflows changed.

My rough rule for inclusion:

If removing the tool would noticeably change my normal week, it probably belongs here.

AI

AI is now a major part of both my software development workflow and how I use computers more generally.

Anthropic

  • Models: Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5
  • Interfaces: Claude Code, KiroCrew (work only)
  • Main use: Software development and agentic coding

OpenAI

  • Models: GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, Luna
  • Interfaces: Codex, ChatGPT
  • Codex: Software development and coding agents
  • ChatGPT: Day-to-day questions, research, thinking through problems, and increasingly replacing traditional search engines

Zhipu

  • Models: GLM 5.3, GLM 5.3 Flash
  • Interfaces: Pi, ZCode
  • Main use: Coding

DeepSeek

  • Models: DeepSeek V4 Flash, V4 Pro
  • Interface: DeepSeek Harness
  • Main use: Coding

For coding, my current stack increasingly looks like:

Model provider → model → coding harness

The harness has become almost as important as the underlying model.

Voice Transcription

Murmur

I use Murmur for voice transcription.

My current language-specific setup:

  • English: Parakeet V3
  • Chinese: Whisper Turbo

I use voice input quite a bit for longer AI conversations and whenever speaking is faster than typing.

Reading

WeRead

  • WeRead / 微信读书
  • Main use: Books

Most of my digital book reading happens here.

Video

Bilibili

Mainly for Chinese-language content, including entertainment, gaming, technology, and other interests.

YouTube

Mainly for English-language content, including technology, software engineering, AI, entertainment, and learning.

Social Media

X

Mainly used for:

  • AI news
  • Software engineering
  • Technology discussions

RedNote

Mainly used for:

  • Local news and information
  • Food and restaurant recommendations
  • Chinese-language content and discovery

Notes

Emacs + Org mode

I use Emacs + Org mode as my main long-term note storage.

An interesting change in my workflow is that I don’t necessarily interact with the notes directly as much as before.

Increasingly, I interact with my notes through AI conversations: asking questions, retrieving information, or using AI to work with the underlying Org files.

Org mode is becoming more like the persistent data layer behind my personal knowledge rather than the primary interface I use to access it.

Communication

Slack

Mainly for work communication.

WeChat

Mainly for personal communication.

Browser

Google Chrome

My primary web browser.

Email

I currently use:

  • Gmail
  • Outlook

Music

I run Navidrome as my self-hosted music server.

Musiver

I use Musiver as the client for listening to my Navidrome music library.

Maps

Google Maps

My primary app for:

  • Navigation
  • Finding places
  • Restaurants

Photos

Apple Photos + iCloud

I use Apple Photos with iCloud as my main photo library and sync solution.

NAS

Synology DSM

I use a Synology NAS managed through Synology DSM for personal storage and self-hosted services.

Development

Git

Version control.

GitHub

Used for:

  • Personal projects
  • Open-source projects
  • Source-code hosting
  • My personal website

React Native

A major part of my professional software development work.

Xcode

Used for iOS and React Native development.

Personal Website

GitHub Pages

My personal website is hosted through GitHub Pages.

I use it as a long-lived place for projects, writing, and things I want to publish outside social media platforms.

Future Retrospectives

I’d like to make another snapshot periodically, probably around once a year.

The things I’d be most interested in comparing:

  • What am I still using?
  • What did I stop using?
  • What replaced what?
  • Which new tools became part of my normal workflow?
  • How did my AI workflow change?
  • Did any workflow disappear completely because AI replaced it?
  • Did I move more toward self-hosting or back toward hosted services?

This is the September 2026 snapshot.