---
title: Bumblebee
date: 2025-04-02
layout: post
project: true
thumbnail: thumb_sm.png
---

Few months at trading firm. Brittle ETL jobs. Scripts max out CPUs. No hardware
bailout—budget cuts, €0.4 mil/month cloud costs. Workaround: restart stalling
servers. Fine idea in every respect; only doesn't solve the problem.

Need better scripts. Created tool on my own time to synthesize/optimize code
from browser sessions:

<video style="max-width:100%; margin-bottom: 10px" controls="" poster="poster.png">
  <source src="bee.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>

Stack: C# WinForms host, WebView2 (Edge), Scintilla.NET editor.

Data flow: injected JS hooks + browser → events → commands → optimizer →
editor. 

Events, commands stored in two linear lists. Lists desync on manual edits,
blocks optimizer. ASTs are overkill. Workaround: edit at end of session only.

First iteration of optimizer complete. Squashes event sequences into single
commands (e.g., calendar clicks → text input). Better DOM addressing (xpath,
id, element) using heuristics. Working on key optimization: bypass browser,
grab data file directly when possible.

Abandoned project—left the firm. Source code: under NDA.