writing · 96 essays

The archive

Essays on engineering leadership, the agentic SDLC, platform engineering, and enterprise AI — what actually constrains software delivery.

Series 5

// featured · October 12, 2026

The Prompt Is Not the Permission: Securing the Agentic SDLC

A change can pass release checks after an agent has exceeded its authority. Platforms need controls during execution, with evidence that those controls hold even when the model follows a malicious instruction.

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agentic-sdlc

$ vinny init agentic-sdlc
→ spinning up reasoning loop
✓ spec generated · 217 lines
✓ tests scaffolded · 14 cases
⚠ coverage gap detected · branch /auth
→ prompting refinement
✓ branch coverage · 96%
// shipping behavior, not just code

October 8, 202617 min audio
The Bottleneck Is Never the Stack: What Held and What Moved★
In May I named the argument underneath a year of writing. Five months later, I'd keep the argument and narrow several claims. Here is what changed, what survived, and what I still can't prove.
Engineering LeadershipAgentic SDLCAI Strategy
October 3, 202613 min audio
Jev Is Not a Faster LLM★
TypeSafe's Jev gives up prose for typed, probabilistic decisions. The engineering work is defining those decisions, measuring their errors, and deciding when software should ask for help.
AI EconomicsGenAIAI Strategy
October 1, 202614 min audio
The Return of the Personal Agent★
I've used five personal agents to help with the work of everyday life. A restaurant call, a changed appointment, and a playoff-ticket search show what I can hand over, what still needs my decision, and how I know the job is finished.
GenAIProductivitySide Projects
September 30, 202617 min audio
The Agent Is Not the Platform★
Building a portable software-development workflow across Claude Code, Codex, Goose, Pi and OpenCode.
Agentic SDLCPlatform EngineeringAI Coding
September 28, 202614 min audio
The Agent Is Wearing Your Badge★
An agent acting with your credentials can leave a record of your authority without a record of its involvement. Platform teams need to preserve who acted, under whose authority, and how to stop that access.
Platform EngineeringAgentic SDLCEngineering Leadership
September 22, 20269 min audio
Your Platform Is Teaching Your Engineers★
Every default, error message, and exception communicates how work gets done. The question is whether that's the lesson you intended.
Platform EngineeringEngineering LeadershipAgentic SDLC
September 18, 202611 min audio
Omarchy: Linux Finally Reached My Desk★
Omarchy installed on a drawer laptop in two minutes and everything worked. The reason is a platform lesson: choose the defaults, keep the escape hatches, and make the system legible to the agent.
Platform EngineeringEngineering Leadership
September 14, 20267 min audio
Bootleggers, Baptists, and the Case for Slowing Down AI★
The frontier labs are asking to slow down, and I think most of them mean it. Bruce Yandle's 1983 theory explains why sincerity isn't the question that matters. The question is who can afford the rules that follow.
AI StrategyEngineering Leadership
September 13, 202610 min audio
Your Agent Workflow Needs a Release Process★
Kiro's frontier engineering principles describe how to work well with agents. Making that practice dependable across a team means treating the shared workflow as a software release, with a version, a scope, an owner, and tests for when it should stop.
Agentic SDLCPlatform EngineeringEngineering Leadership
September 9, 202613 min audio
Worse Is Better, but Simple for Whom?★
Coding agents can reduce implementation effort without reducing every obligation that follows. Revisiting Richard Gabriel's argument raises a different question: which design is simplest to verify, use, change, and operate, and for whom?
Agentic SDLCEngineering LeadershipGenAI

featured

The Prompt Is Not the Permission: Securing the Agentic SDLC

The Bottleneck Is Never the Stack: What Held and What Moved★

Jev Is Not a Faster LLM★

The Return of the Personal Agent★

The Agent Is Not the Platform★

The Agent Is Wearing Your Badge★

Your Platform Is Teaching Your Engineers★

Omarchy: Linux Finally Reached My Desk★

Bootleggers, Baptists, and the Case for Slowing Down AI★

Your Agent Workflow Needs a Release Process★

Worse Is Better, but Simple for Whom?★