Probably the Best Work I've Done. Here's the Story.

Product · May 6, 2025

Probably the Best Work I've Done. Here's the Story.

A few weeks at Merlin AI building an Agentic Chrome extension with a small team. From prototype to MCP, this is how it came together and why it changed how I think about building AI products.

A few weeks ago, our CEO Pratyush asked us to build an Agentic Chrome extension at Merlin AI.

At that moment, I was deep in urgent pricing fixes for the marketing team. I did not expect what came next.

The Team

We were a team of three.

https://x.com/milindmishra_/status/2042313218778087907

Shubhankit was working on agent orchestration. Shahbaz had context from an earlier version of the extension. I was handling frontend and overall product experience with help from Athul, and later went deep into MCP.

Small team, clear ownership.

Shahbaz’s prior context helped us move fast. He focused on LinkedIn content scripts and data extraction flows. He also picked up a few MCP tools later as things evolved.

I was still finishing my assigned work and waiting to jump in. Once I got the time, we went all in.

Just Building

A holiday plus weekend later, we were pulling extra hours and just shipping.

No overplanning. Just building, breaking, fixing. Pure engineering energy.

late night shipping

I started with polishing the prototype Shubhankit built, the color tokens, AI content stream handling, and all that. An extension talking to a backend relay that handled AI calls. Very basic. But it worked.

early draft of the extension that performed tasks on gmail

I focused on getting the basics right. Layout, spacing, components, design tokens.

https://x.com/milindmishra_/status/2044106263949451631

Not just making it work, but making it feel right.

https://x.com/milindmishra_/status/2043025366458208628

Interaction Details

Then came interaction details.

I added small cues like a glow when the agent is active. A clear way to stop execution. Signals so users know the AI is working.

Small things, big difference.

Real Workflows

Then we started testing real workflows.

  • Filling YC applications
  • Booking trips end to end
  • Doing research and structuring outputs

Seeing it actually work felt unreal.

Team Demos

Team demos were a turning point.

The entire Merlin team trying out our internal release of Merlin's Agentic Extension.

The entire Merlin team trying out our internal release of Merlin’s Agentic Extension.

Shubhankit trying out all kinds of fun things with YouTube automation.

We built a dynamic confirmation tool which could do all kinds of fun things, so there’s also that.

https://x.com/milindmishra_/status/2047643032649109640

But the feedback was clear. Agentic alone was not enough. We needed more reliability.

Going Deep on MCP

That is when I went deep into MCP.

Explored the ecosystem with Composio. Integrated tools like Gmail, Calendar, Notion. Handled auth and backend wiring.

This changed everything.

The shift was obvious. From hoping the AI gets it right, to building flows where it actually completes tasks. That is when things started to click.

The Demos

We also focused a lot on demos. Recording flows. Polishing interactions. Making sure the experience feels real.

Because if people do not feel it, it does not matter.

Looking Back

Looking back, this was not just frontend work. It was product thinking, design systems, and AI interaction design. End to end ownership.

And honestly, this is one of the best pieces of work I have done. Spent days and nights refining small details so users can feel the care.

Still early, still learning. But this project changed how I think about building AI products and interfaces.

More soon.