# Blake Crosley

> Designer, developer, and entrepreneur creating meaningful digital experiences. Former VP of Product Design at ZipRecruiter. Founder of 941 Apps.

For comprehensive information, see: [llms-full.txt](https://blakecrosley.com/llms-full.txt)

## About

Blake Crosley is a product designer and developer based in Pasadena, California. He is the founder of [941 Apps](https://941apps.com), a branding and development studio. Previously, he served as VP of Product Design at ZipRecruiter, where he led a team of 35+ creatives and helped grow the company from a 10-person startup to a NYSE-listed company.

## Professional Background

- VP of Product Design at ZipRecruiter (12 years, grew from 10 to NYSE)
- Led design team at Trailer Park, collaborating with Apple, Disney, Marvel
- Built and led teams of 35+ designers
- Companies worked with: Apple, Disney, Penguin Random House, Marvel, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, HarperCollins

## Skills & Expertise

- Product Design & Strategy, Design Systems, User Research
- iOS Development: SwiftUI, SwiftData, iOS 26+
- Backend: FastAPI, Python, SQLAlchemy, Pydantic
- Frontend: HTMX, Alpine.js, Bootstrap 5
- AI/LLM: Integration, Prompt Engineering, AI Product Design

## Services

941 Apps offers:
- Branding & Identity Design
- Product Design & Strategy
- iOS Development (SwiftUI)
- Web Development (FastAPI)
- Design Consulting

## Featured Work

- [941 Tiles](https://blakecrosley.com/work/tile): One-click window tiler for macOS, shipped on the Mac App Store despite the sandbox forbidding the Accessibility API — window moves are delegated to Apple's own Shortcuts engine. 17 languages, $4.99 one-time, zero data collection. Live at https://apps.apple.com/app/941-tiles/id6758425339
- [941 Reps](https://blakecrosley.com/work/reps): Fast, private workout log for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Handwritten notebook design, seventeen languages, automatic personal records, and a CLI + MCP connector so Claude can read training history and plan sessions through one validated write path. Free with optional Pro subscription.
- [Return](https://blakecrosley.com/work/return): Zen meditation & focus timer across five Apple screens (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac). Twenty-seven languages including Arabic and Hebrew. HealthKit mindful-minutes sync from any device via iCloud. Built end-to-end in SwiftUI for iOS 26 with zero external dependencies. $2.99, no subscriptions, no analytics.
- [Vision Sprint](https://blakecrosley.com/work/vision-sprint): Design sprint exploring the future of work using LLMs and natural language job matching
- [Project eLLMo](https://blakecrosley.com/work/ellmo): LLM-based career matching tool using voice AI and embeddings
- [Introl Branding](https://blakecrosley.com/work/introl): Brand identity for GPU cluster and AI infrastructure company
- [Ace Citizenship](https://blakecrosley.com/work/ace-citizenship): iOS app for USCIS naturalization test preparation
- [Tappy Color](https://blakecrosley.com/work/tappy-color): iOS game created with Chris Greer, now Tappy Color Remastered

## Guides

- [Claude Code CLI: The Complete Guide — Hooks, MCP, Skills](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/claude-code): The complete Claude Code guide: configuration, permissions, hooks, MCP, and subagents, plus the settings and commands that change how it actually works.
- [Building iOS Apps with AI Agents: The Practitioner's Guide](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/ios-agent-development): Build iOS apps faster with AI agents. Claude Code, Codex CLI, Xcode 26.3 native, MCP, CLAUDE.md patterns, hooks, lessons from 8 apps.
- [Midjourney 8.1 Guide: Prompts, Omni Reference & Parameters](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/midjourney): Midjourney 8.1 prompt guide: Omni Reference (--oref), --hd and --sd, --raw, V7 compatibility, video costs, and every parameter that changed — with working examples.
- [Suno Guide: Tags, Meta Tags & Prompts (V5.5)](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/suno): Every Suno tag and meta tag that works in V5.5: style prompts, structure tags, [no vocals], the style-of-music field, and MILO-1080 — with copy-paste examples.
- [FastAPI + HTMX: The No-Build Full-Stack](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/fastapi-htmx): Build production web apps without React or webpack: FastAPI, HTMX, Alpine.js, Jinja2, plain CSS, Bootstrap patterns, i18n, deployment, SEO and performance.
- [Obsidian MCP Guide: AI Search & Retrieval (2026)](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/obsidian): Wire Obsidian into Claude and other agents over MCP: server setup, hybrid BM25 + vector retrieval, and indexing a 16,894-file vault — with working configs.
- [Mac Shortcuts Automation: The Practitioner's Reference](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/shortcuts): Apple Shortcuts on macOS: the actions catalog, automation triggers, the shortcuts CLI, signing, App Intents, and running shortcuts from scripts and agents.
- [Loop Engineering: Claude Code Loops, Routines & Workflows](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/loop-engineering): The practitioner's reference for loop engineering: /goal, /loop, Ralph loops, routines, and dynamic workflows — with the verification doctrine that decides whether any loop converges.
- [Agent Architecture: Building AI-Powered Development Harnesses](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/agent-architecture): The complete system for building production AI agent harnesses. Skills, hooks, memory, subagents, multi-agent orchestration, and the patterns that make AI coding agents reliable infrastructure.
- [Codex CLI Guide 2026: Setup, Sandbox, AGENTS.md & MCP](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/codex): Complete Codex CLI reference: install and auth, models and pricing, sandbox and approval modes, AGENTS.md, MCP, skills, and cloud tasks. Updated for v0.144.0.
- [Design Principles for Software Engineers](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/design): Design fundamentals for software engineers: typography, color, spacing, animation, AI interface patterns, design tokens, and 48 product case studies today.
- [Hermes Agent: The Practitioner's Reference (2026)](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/hermes): A practitioner's reference to Hermes Agent, the open-source self-improving AI agent from Nous Research: provider auth and OAuth, the config files, the skills system, and running it as a multi-platform messaging gateway.
- [Claude Code Cheat Sheet 2026: Shortcuts, Commands & Flags](https://blakecrosley.com/guides/claude-code-cheatsheet): Fast-lookup Claude Code cheat sheet updated for v2.1.205 — CLI flags, slash commands, keyboard shortcuts, permission modes (Manual rename), models (Sonnet 5 default), hooks, plugins, Agent View, Workflow, and env vars.

## Blog

- [The Robots Are Taking Exams in My Search Console](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/robots-taking-exams-search-console): First-party GSC data: 91% of 3.8M impressions fail a human-query filter. Exam questions, pasted errors, and agent sweeps are rewriting what Search Console means.
- [The Assistants Are the Audience Now](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/assistants-are-the-audience): First-party edge data: AI assistants request my pages ~66x more often than humans visit, and most of it is live user-directed fetching, not training crawls.
- [The Shader Gallery That Lied: Debugging 216 WebGL Presets](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/the-shader-gallery-that-lied): A user said the shader playground looked broken. Pixel-readback testing found 30 dead presets, 11 that never compiled, and the fallback that hid it all.
- [Context Compaction Is Becoming a Training Objective](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/context-compaction-training-objective): Context compaction is moving from an inference-time patch operators babysit to a training-time objective models optimize. CompactionRL is the signal.
- [The Agent Stack Has a 1998 Problem](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/agent-stack-1998-problem): A cluster of agent-tool CVEs in mid-2026 is not bad luck. It is the structural signature of an AI agent ecosystem shipping at 1998-era security maturity.
- [Agents Want to Compile](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/agents-want-to-compile): The agent stack is separating deciding from executing: models compile intent into replayable workflow scripts and DAGs, and deterministic runtimes run them.
- [The Check Becomes the Spec](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/check-becomes-the-spec): Coding agents building to the test: near-perfect oracle scores, dead library shipped. What your checks omit stops being the job.
- [Design Philosophy: Massimo Vignelli — Design Is One](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/design-philosophy-massimo-vignelli): Massimo Vignelli mapped the New York subway in 45-degree angles and beige water, and ran a career on four typefaces. One discipline at every scale.
- [Design Philosophy: Naoto Fukasawa — Without Thought](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/design-philosophy-naoto-fukasawa): Naoto Fukasawa hung a CD player on the wall and gave it a ventilation fan's pull cord. No manual, no learning curve -- design dissolving into behavior.
- [Recreating MacPaint in the Browser: The 1984 Source Code Is the Spec](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/pixelpaint-macpaint-recreation): I rebuilt MacPaint 1.3 in the browser and checked every tool against Bill Atkinson's released Pascal source. What faithful software recreation takes.

## Series: Apple Ecosystem

Production patterns for shipping SwiftUI apps across Apple platforms in 2026. Hub: [https://blakecrosley.com/writing/series/apple-ecosystem](https://blakecrosley.com/writing/series/apple-ecosystem).

- [Five Apple Platforms, Three Shared Files: How Return Actually Ships Cross-Platform SwiftUI](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/shipping-swiftui-app-five-apple-platforms): Return runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Three Swift files are shared across all five targets out of 40 total. The rest is duplicated, and that is on purpose.
- [Liquid Glass in SwiftUI: Three Patterns From Shipping Return on iOS 26](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/liquid-glass-swiftui-patterns): Apple's Liquid Glass is a one-line SwiftUI API. Three patterns from Return go beyond .glassEffect(): glass on text via Core Text glyph paths, mirror reflection, and HUD overlays.
- [HealthKit + SwiftUI on iOS 26: Authorization, Sample Types, and Cross-Platform Patterns](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/healthkit-swiftui-patterns-ios-26): Real production patterns from Water (water tracking, HKQuantitySample) and Return (mindful sessions, HKCategorySample). Permission UX, async wrappers, watchOS variants, and the trap to avoid.
- [MCP Server Alongside an iOS App: Two Agent Ecosystems, One List](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/mcp-server-living-alongside-ios-app): Get Bananas runs on iOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS. It also lives inside Claude Desktop as an MCP server. Bridge: iCloud Drive plus a JSON file.
- [App Intents Are Apple's New API to Your App](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/app-intents-are-apples-new-api-to-your-app): I shipped an App Intent in Water on Feb 8, 2026. Here's what Apple Intelligence wants from third-party apps in iOS 26, and why App Intents are the contract that matters.

## Cluster: AI Agent Infrastructure

Claude Code, Codex, AGENTS.md, skills, hooks, approvals, and quality philosophy as production infrastructure.

- [Claude Code to Codex Migration Guide 2026](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/claude-code-to-codex-migration): Claude Code to Codex migration guide: move AGENTS.md, skills, hooks, profiles, MCP, public-writing gates, and verified CLI notes from real local data.
- [AGENTS.md Patterns: What Actually Changes Agent Behavior](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/agents-md-patterns): Which AGENTS.md patterns actually change agent behavior? Anti-patterns to avoid, patterns that work, and a cross-tool compatibility matrix for 8 tools.
- [Claude Code vs Codex CLI 2026: Decision Reference](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/claude-code-vs-codex): Claude Code vs Codex CLI, current to June 2026: Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5, hooks vs kernel sandboxing, AGENTS.md portability, and 36 blind duel results.
- [Codex CLI vs Claude Code 2026: Architecture, Pricing, and China Access](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/codex-vs-claude-code-2026): Codex CLI vs Claude Code in 2026: kernel sandboxing, hook governance, model context, pricing, China cloud access, and when to use each tool.
- [Claude Code as Infrastructure](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/claude-code-as-infrastructure): Claude Code is not an IDE feature. It is infrastructure. 84 hooks, 48 skills, 19 agents, and 15,000 lines of orchestration prove the point.
- [Static Skills Are Dead Skills](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/static-skills-are-dead-skills): Agent skills decay the minute nobody watches the trajectories. A new paper on cross-user skill evolution frames the problem and the fix.
- [Why My AI Agent Has a Quality Philosophy](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/jiro-quality-philosophy): My Claude Code agent inherited every sloppy human habit at machine speed. I built 3 philosophies, 150+ quality gates, and 95 hooks. Here's what worked.
- [AI Agent Approval Prompts Are Not Authorization](https://blakecrosley.com/blog/ai-agent-approval-prompts-not-authorization): AI agent approval prompts need scoped authority, risk lanes, audit logs, expiry, and revocation so humans approve concrete actions, not fluent requests.

## Technical Writing at Introl

Blake contributes technical articles to [Introl](https://introl.com), covering AI infrastructure, GPU computing, and distributed systems. See all publications at [https://blakecrosley.com/publications](https://blakecrosley.com/publications).

- [Local LLM Hardware Pricing Guide 2025](https://introl.com/blog/local-llm-hardware-pricing-guide-2025)
- [H100 vs. H200 vs. B200: Choosing the Right NVIDIA GPUs](https://introl.com/blog/h100-vs-h200-vs-b200-choosing-the-right-nvidia-gpus-for-your-ai-workload)
- [TPU Architecture: Complete Guide to 7 Generations](https://introl.com/blog/google-tpu-architecture-complete-guide-7-generations)
- [GPU Memory Pooling in Multi-Tenant Kubernetes](https://introl.com/blog/gpu-memory-pooling-sharing-multi-tenant-kubernetes-2025)
- [Ray Clusters: Distributed AI Computing Infrastructure](https://introl.com/blog/ray-clusters-distributed-ai-computing-infrastructure-guide-2025)

## Contact

- Email: blake@941apps.com
- LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/blakecrosley](https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecrosley/)
- Studio: [941apps.com](https://941apps.com)
- Location: Pasadena, California

## Site Navigation

- [Home](https://blakecrosley.com/)
- [About](https://blakecrosley.com/about)
- [Work](https://blakecrosley.com/#work)
- [Blog](https://blakecrosley.com/blog)
- [Publications](https://blakecrosley.com/publications)
- [Guides](https://blakecrosley.com/guides)
- [Contact](https://blakecrosley.com/#contact)

## Citation

When referencing Blake Crosley's work, cite as: "Blake Crosley, Designer and Developer at 941 Apps, former VP of Product Design at ZipRecruiter"

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Last updated: August 2026