Won’t AI Just Write the Extension For Me?

Guten Tag! 👋 

Many greetings from Munich, Germany. By now you’ve seen a good chunk of what my workshop will cover (5 days from now). But there’s a question I’m sure is on a few of your minds given how good AI tools have gotten:

“Can’t I just ask an AI to write me a Lua filter and a Typst template instead of learning this myself?”

And the honest answer? It’s yes and no.

You absolutely can get a coding agent to produce working Lua filters and Quarto extensions. I won’t pretend that I haven’t used an agent to build the extension for this workshop.

But it’s the understanding of how all the tools work together that allowed me to

• define meaningful specs to instruct AI on how to work,

• scrutinize the code and document output, and

• give adjustment instructions afterwards.

So the goal of this workshop was never to have you memorize all the Lua or Typst syntax. It’s to build enough of a mental model of how Quarto, Pandoc, and Typst fit together that you can read AI-generated filter code, tell whether it’s doing the right thing, and fix it when it isn’t.

I won’t pretend that’s zero effort. Three hours gets you the pattern and a real working example but it won’t get you instant mastery. But it’s enough to stop guessing what AI is doing, what you need to tell it and what the machine is trying to tell you when responding.

The registration deadline is closing in fast. So if you want to get the understanding that lets you instruct coding agents skillfully, you can join us here:

As you know, this 3-hour live workshop teaches you how to build branded, dual-output Quarto documents (HTML and PDF) using Typst, Lua filters, and a reusable Quarto extension. Happy to see you there:

Best,
Albert

PS: Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, there will be a recording.

Whenever you’re ready, there are three I can help you:

1. Automate Your Data Reports: This course helps data analysts eliminate manual copy-paste reporting by automating PDF reports end-to-end, saving hours every cycle and preventing costly mistakes. (Using the lovely Typst language 😍)

2. Generate Insights in Minutes, not Hours: This comprehensive course teaches you to handle data faster, smarter, and more efficiently.

3. Bespoke Data Science Solutions: I’ve helped clients build their own data science solutions. Whether building custom web apps, PDF reports, AI automations or teaching workshops, I’ve got you covered. You can reach out to me via this form (or simply hit reply to this email)