Bobby Smart https://bobbysmart.dev/ Opinions, hot takes, and stories from building with AI. en-US Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The agent orchestration trap: what have you shipped this week? https://bobbysmart.dev/blog/agent-orchestration-trap/ https://bobbysmart.dev/blog/agent-orchestration-trap/ Agent swarms that look impressive but ship nothing. Productivity theater versus actually building things. Opinion Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT You probably don't need an eval platform https://bobbysmart.dev/blog/evals-for-small-teams/ https://bobbysmart.dev/blog/evals-for-small-teams/ What actually caught regressions while building an AI detection product: traces, a tiny golden set, and a CI gate. AI engineering Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT I spent a year building AI features and shipped nothing https://bobbysmart.dev/blog/shipping-ai-features-without-burnout/ https://bobbysmart.dev/blog/shipping-ai-features-without-burnout/ What over-engineering burnout actually looks like from the inside, and the ordering mistake that caused it. Shipping product Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Make two agents plan, then trade their homework https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/swap-the-plans/ https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/swap-the-plans/ The cheapest quality trick I run: have Cursor and Claude Code each draft a plan, then hand each the other one. Agents & tools Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The meal that explains vibe coding https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/what-the-chicken-hearts-taught-me/ https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/what-the-chicken-hearts-taught-me/ A friend fed me a dinner she wouldn't describe until after I'd eaten it. I think about that every time I ship code I didn't read. Agents & tools Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT A whole tool, between 10pm and 1am https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/overnight-tab-manager/ https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/overnight-tab-manager/ The best thing about this era isn't the big rewrites. It's how cheap it got to scratch a small itch. Shipping product Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Prompt like you order coffee https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/the-black-coffee-prompt/ https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/the-black-coffee-prompt/ Ask for exactly what you want. You can always add the sugar later; you can never take it out. LLM fundamentals Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT The interview I won by not writing code https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/the-date-problem-that-wasnt/ https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/the-date-problem-that-wasnt/ Everyone reached for a date library. I asked what the user actually needed and answered it with plain integers. Shipping product Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Set the spend limit before the first prompt https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/the-60-dollar-lesson/ https://bobbysmart.dev/notes/the-60-dollar-lesson/ An agent left running on premium models is a great way to donate money to a cloud provider. Agents & tools Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT