Engineering
Writing about software engineering systems, technical leverage, architecture, delivery speed, organizational incentives, and the mechanics that determine whether teams compound or slow down.
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Remote dev boxes need secret brokers, not copied env files
The rule I use for remote development secrets: keep the vault on the laptop and hand the remote only scoped runtime leases.
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Git worktrees expose the real cost structure of JavaScript repositories
The rule I use with worktrees: isolate working directories, share immutable caches, and keep each branch honest.
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Agent APIs need an intent layer
The rule I use for agent-facing APIs: log the user goal before the agent turns it into a clean tool call.
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Agents do not want your CRUD APIs
The agent-ready test I use for SaaS APIs: expose useful product capabilities, not remote access to internal objects.
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AI coding agents need identity boundaries
The rule I use for local AI agents: split Unix accounts when credentials, identity, cloud access, or risk level differ.
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Frictionless remote access to a home Linux workstation
The setup I want for a home Linux workstation: private access that makes SSH feel cheap without exposing a public port.
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Architecture is the cost structure of change
The way I judge architecture: does it make the next valuable change cheaper to understand, test, review, and recover from?
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AI made code cheap. It did not make merge decisions cheap
The rule I use for AI-heavy development: make generation cheap, but make new obligations intentional.
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Encryption keys are product boundaries
How I think about key design in multi-tenant SaaS: customer keys should model authority, jurisdiction, deletion, and enterprise trust.
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Growth engineering is the business of reducing the cost of learning
The way I judge growth engineering: does the work make the next product question cheaper, safer, and easier to trust?