If it's any consolation, I stay on top of all changes, but when the AI API stops I feel just as stuck.

I understand what I made, the speed just drops to 0.1%. So I just start studying the codebase, planning work for later, ordering thoughts by writing DESIGN.md, adding jobs to the kanban.

It scares me that I don't own the LLM though, but someday I will, it will be local and I'll feel better when I own my means of production again.

Become your own AI provider? At least until Anthropic et al manage to get local AI declared illegal. :)