As any individual who’s equivalent portions gamer and tinkerer, I spend numerous time shopping at efficiency metrics. Reasonable FPS is solely the end of the iceberg for me. I am excited by seeing frametime, latency graphs, and different metrics like GPU Busy when compared on a run-to-run foundation. Visualizing those metrics for private use is straightforward: programs like CapFrameX do that for you, however I used to be in search of a option to produce slick graphs for newsletter right here on XDA and somewhere else, and so, like the general public who’ve rudimentary wisdom of coding, I grew to become to Claude Code to lend a hand with making an utility that might just do that. It succeeded in carrying out that activity a long way past my expectancies, and there is nonetheless such a lot I will be able to strengthen on.
I gave Claude Code keep watch over of my desktop for every week, and it computerized issues I did not assume have been conceivable
I used to be significantly shocked.
Exporting graphs is not one thing those programs do
CapFrameX and PresentMon each do their jobs neatly, however their visualization outputs are designed for the individual operating the take a look at to do a handy guide a rough take a look at of the information, now not for a reader who is a couple of pages into an editorial. E-newsletter-grade charts want constant styling, blank typography, matching colour palettes throughout items, so an editorial feels cohesive, and a structure that appears intentional moderately than screenshotted from a default view.
My necessities are easy: I need one thing that can take a CSV document from both of the ones programs, and output great shopping graphs with suitable scaling and colours that I will be able to edit at any time. I am not a developer, however I do know simply sufficient Python to get me into hassle.
I examined Claude Code towards 3 open-source choices, and one got here strangely shut
Claude will not be the one coding agent value the usage of.
This was once my first enjoy with Claude Code, and it knocked it out of the park
Claude Code righted the wrongs of ChatGPT and helped me flip a script into an actual app with a GUI
The unique script got here out of ChatGPT in an try to see if what I used to be asking was once even affordable within the first position. The script produced was once somewhat shoddy, and did not precisely paintings the way in which I sought after, however it did output graphs in a .png structure. I put the mission at the backburner for a few months, and after I passed it off to Claude Code for a sanity take a look at later, it wiped clean up the CLI arguments neatly sufficient to present me self assurance in asking it to make a GUI wrapper.
The structure ended up cut up cleanly in two. The CLI software, benchmark_graph.py, nonetheless works standalone, so if I favor operating charts from a terminal for some reason why, not anything’s modified. The GUI, gui.py, is a wrapper that imports from it.
I did not even specify precisely how I sought after the GUI to be arrange, I merely requested for it, and Claude delivered it. There have been some rising pains in getting the construct procedure to paintings—I sought after in an effort to click on an .exe and feature the GUI open as a substitute of operating it from the command-line, which may be very choosy of me, however I used to be additionally simply curious to look if it was once even conceivable for Claude to do within the first position. After checking out some insects in getting the script to execute as it should be, I after all had a operating GUI app that did precisely what I sought after.
It labored completely. I may upload my CSV recordsdata and press “Generate Charts”, however extra apparently, it added a number of QoL stuff that I did not ask for that wasn’t within the authentic script, no less than, now not with CLI arguments I used to be acutely aware of. It gave me the facility to label the CSVs with no need to rename the recordsdata themselves, and it added a devoted phase for chart previews that populates proper after operating the script, two very helpful issues I shouldn’t have requested for. I did ask it so as to add a option to alternate the colour of the charts the usage of a colour picker, and it was once a hit, regardless that I believe extra tweaks are had to allow the facility to modify the background colour. Output folders also are timestamped mechanically and come with a abstract CSV along the chart recordsdata, making fast appears easy.
I used Claude Code, Antigravity, and Perplexity Laptop to construct a portfolio — there was once a transparent winner
The consequences have been unexpected.
This can be a hobbyist app, and I do not know if it is watertight
I’m really not a instrument developer
I need to make this abundantly transparent for individuals who select to peruse the GitHub repo: I’m now not a instrument developer. I will be able to learn the code neatly sufficient to apply what it is doing, and will write some fundamental intermediate-level systems in a few other languages, however I am in no way knowledgeable. I will be able to’t let you know whether or not it is built sensibly, whether or not there are delicate insects looking ahead to edge instances I have not hit, or whether or not an actual engineer would take a look at it and wince. Not anything has been code-reviewed, and there were no checks but even so me operating my CSV recordsdata thru it.
And that is the reality about vibe-coded apps: code produced thru conversational prompting has a tendency to paintings for the precise situations you examined and ruin quietly out of doors them. If CapFrameX adjustments its CSV schema in a long run replace, or a matplotlib dependency deprecates one thing the software is determined by, I am not going to have my nostril buried in Visible Studio, I am operating again to the Claude Code chat window to determine what broke.
I hooked up Claude to my terminal, and now it does issues I used to script by way of hand
Claude changed my whole scripting workflow
It really works for precisely what I want it for
I am amazed at how little time this took
There are different ways to provide slick-looking charts from CSV recordsdata, however I sought after to do it in a single very particular method, and it took sending a complete of 17(!) chat messages to Claude to move from CLI script to serve as GUI that I in fact use in my day by day paintings. If I had attempted to code this by myself, we might be nearing monkey-typewriter territory.
Limitless monkey theorem apart, this proved to me that Claude Code is really helpful now not simply as a device, however it is helpful for growing my very own equipment. I may spend tokens on pasting the CSVs to Claude each and every time I need a chart, however having my very own software encased in its personal executable that I will be able to pin to my taskbar is superior, and it slotted into my workflow completely.
Claude Code put in my IDE, and now I will be able to’t return to guide setup
I will be able to’t consider I used to be operating in exhausting mode
Claude did not substitute a device, it made a brand new one for me
As a result of how a lot time I spend shopping at efficiency metrics, having the ability to percentage them in some way that does not glance sloppy is vital to me, and this software right away become an enormous a part of my day by day workflow. There are issues that I may undoubtedly strengthen about it, and it is virtually surely were given some problems beneath the hood that an skilled dev would scoff at, however it does precisely what I want it to do, and that’s the reason excellent sufficient for me.
