Notes from the platform.
Engineering notes on autonomous development platforms, cloud development environments, AI coding agents, and the infrastructure that runs them.
- 7 min read
The Sandbox Is the Wrong Abstraction for AI Coding Agents
The industry settled on ephemeral sandboxes for AI agents — isolated, disposable, destroyed after each task. That's exactly right for running untrusted code and exactly wrong for building software. Here's the distinction that matters.
AI agentsarchitectureopinionRead - 6 min read
Leaving Gitpod: Where Cloud Dev Environments Went in 2026
Gitpod Classic shut down in October 2025 and the product became Ona, an AI-agent platform on a new runtime. If that broke your workflow, here's an honest map of the alternatives and what to check before you migrate.
cloud developmentmigrationtoolingRead - 5 min read
Why Your AI Agent Keeps Forgetting (And Why Bigger Context Windows Won't Fix It)
Your coding agent works brilliantly for twenty minutes, then forgets the architecture you explained. That's not a bug you can prompt your way out of — and million-token windows won't save you. What actually helps.
AI agentscontextdeveloper experienceRead - 6 min read
You Built an App With AI. Now What?
The AI wrote your app in an afternoon. Getting it online, with a real database, that doesn't leak your API keys, is where most people get stuck. A plain-English guide to what happens after the code exists.
deploymentno-codegetting startedRead - 7 min read
The Real Cost of a Cloud Development Environment
Sticker price is the smallest part of what a cloud development environment costs — and the laptop it replaces was never free either. A model for working out whether the numbers actually favour you.
cloud developmentcostengineering managementRead - 5 min read
Why AI Coding Agents Need Persistent Workspaces
Stateless sandboxes make AI agents repeat themselves, lose context, and guess at results they could have measured. Persistent workspaces fix the feedback loop — here's the mechanism, and what it costs to build.
AI agentsdeveloper experiencearchitectureRead - 6 min read
What Is an Autonomous Development Platform?
An Autonomous Development Platform gives AI agents and developers a persistent, managed environment to build in — not just a place to generate code. Here's what separates the category from AI code generators, PaaS, and cloud IDEs.
autonomous developmentAI agentsplatform engineeringRead - 6 min read
Docker vs Linux Users for Multi-Tenant Workspace Isolation
Separate Linux users look like a cheap way to isolate tenants until you try to enforce a CPU limit. A walkthrough of why containers win for multi-tenant development workspaces — and how to verify the limits are real.
dockerinfrastructuresecurityisolationRead - 6 min read
Cloud Development Environments vs Local Setup: An Honest Comparison
Cloud development environments fix onboarding, parity, and machine sprawl — and introduce latency, cost, and offline problems. A practical breakdown of when each one wins, without the vendor spin.
cloud developmentdeveloper experiencetoolingRead