Chrissy LeMaire's blog on netnerds.net

Fixing Claude Code's PowerShell Problem with Hooks

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

TIP: Just paste this url into Claude Code and say "implement this for me"

Claude Code writes great PowerShell, but it's not the best at using it as a shell. It's basically bash on top of PowerShell. Every single session, I see the same thing:

It tries powershell.exe -Command (Windows PowerShell 5.1, modules don't load)
It fails, switches to pwsh -Command with inline code (bash eats the quoting)
It fails again, finally writes a .ps1 file and runs pwsh -File (works instantly)

Three attempts. Most times. Even with explicit instructions in CLAUDE.md telling it to go straight to the script file approach. I documented the correct pattern months ago and it still burns through two failures before doing the right thing.

Fixing SQL Server Case Sensitivity Issues with GitHub Copilot CLI

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When creating dbatools commands, most of us use case-insensitive collation because that's the default and what we use in our labs. So creating commands that call T-SQL always works on our machines, but then we'll get an issue requesting that we fix a command to work on someone's case-sensitive SQL Server.

With case-sensitive collation (CS), dbo.cats and dbo.Cats are two distinct objects.

Fixing these SQL queries usually requires me to open the command, copy the T-SQL, paste it into SSMS (which would fix the casing), then copy it back to the command.

Got a ChatGPT Subscription? Use It to Keep Your Blog Up-to-date

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: ChatGPT Pro ($20/month) gives you access to GPT-5 via Codex CLI which is perfect for automating blog updates. I used it on this very blog and was able to update about 50 blog posts before I hit the rate limit. After the rate limit is hit, I have to wait for up to 4 hours then start again. Skip the recommended Codex model (it's terrible) and GPT-5 minimal reasoning.

Update your blog with an AI CLI (No, really)

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: I used Claude Code CLI to batch-update 100+ dbatools blog posts from 2016-2025. It fixed broken links, converted old PowerShell screenshots to text, updated deprecated commands, and even found new websites for people mentioned in old posts.

1Get-ChildItem *.md | Invoke-AITool -Prompt .\blog-refresh.md

The AI handled nuanced judgment calls I'd never do manually. See the full commit.

We have hundreds of blog posts on dbatools, dating back to 2016. Links rot. Commands change. Screenshots turn into ancient Windows PowerShell blue screens that look embarrassing in 2025.

Update Your Blog with GitHub Copilot CLI

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: Use GitHub Copilot CLI to batch-update old blog posts—fix broken links, modernize code examples, convert screenshots to text.

1Get-ChildItem *.md | Invoke-AITool -Prompt .\blog-refresh.md

Write a prompt doc with your rules, run the command, review the diffs, commit what works.

Yesterday I wrote about updating blog content with Claude Code. But what if your company uses GitHub Copilot instead? If you've got GitHub, Copilot's probably already available to you. Here's how to do the same blog maintenance work with GitHub Copilot CLI.

Rebuilding dbatools.io: From Notepad++ to Cursor

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I just rebuilt dbatools.io in a day. The new site is developer-focused, modern, and actually useful. And I did it all with Claude Haiku, which until recently was completely useless to me.

The Origin Story: Notepad++

When I first designed dbatools.io back in 2016, I based it on Notepad++. At the time, I had no idea they were open source—they looked like a polished commercial product. That's exactly how I wanted to position dbatools: as a tool you didn't have to care about who developed it or whether it was open source. You just used the product.

Have You Considered Not Using SQL Server High Availability?

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When someone asks about SQL Server architecture, the reflexive answer is usually 'High Availability,' as if it's a requirement rather than a choice. But after 20 years of managing SQL Server environments, I've found that HA often creates more problems than it solves, especially in certain types of organizations.

The Turnover Problem

Most places I've worked have rotating staff—people are out within 1-4 years for all kinds of reasons. That means the infrastructure we build needs to stay as simple as possible, because all of us might leave in that same timeframe.

PowerShell Output Redirection with AI CLIs

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: In Windows, many AI CLI tools (Aider, Claude Code, Gemini, etc.) work unreliably with PowerShell's standard output capture. The solution is to write to temp files instead of variables or add a -Raw flag for when you need the tool to actually commit changes instead of just previewing them or hanging forever.

The Unix tooling problem on Windows

Most AI tools seem to be written using Unix-native tools like Python and Node.js. If you're building PowerShell modules that interact with AI CLIs like Claude Code or GitHub Copilot CLI, you're dealing with Node.js wrappers or Python processes, all running on Windows where nobody really designed them to work. It'll sometimes work, but then it doesn't.

dbatools is moving to Azure Trusted Signing

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TLDR: dbatools is moving to Azure Trusted Signing, which means Microsoft backs our reputation and dbatools won't trigger as many antivirus false positives.

Users upgrading from older signed versions will need -SkipPublisherCheck only once during the initial transition. PowerShell users with strict ExecutionPolicies (AllSigned/RemoteSigned) will need to trust each new certificate after every update due to Azure Trusted Signing's daily cert rotation (but you can use the automation script provided below).

Document Intelligence with Azure Functions: A Practical Implementation

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, I wrote about a system I created that automatically classifies SharePoint documents, but only briefly touched on the most important part—the Azure Function that does all the heavy lifting.

This post walks through the technical part of this document processing engine and demos how to build an Azure Function that extracts text from documents, analyzes content with cognitive services, and outputs clean, structured data.

Why document intelligence matters for automation engineers

Automation engineers are often skeptical about AI's usefulness in their workflows, and I get it but document processing is genuinely a good use case.