AI Engineering Blog
Deep insights into artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud architecture, and cutting-edge technology solutions that drive business transformation.
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The Case for Commissioning Experience
Peer-reviewed studies, federal assessments, and official Navy programs make the case for fast-tracking older, mid-career AI, cyber, and cloud professionals into direct-commission reserve roles.
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I'm on a Mission to Reduce My Context Usage
After reviewing my agent debug logs, I realized how much context I was wasting. Here is what I found and what I am doing about it.
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The AI Model Team You Didn't Hire: A Field Guide to Your Robot Coworkers
A brutally honest and mildly humorous breakdown of Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Haiku, GPT 5.4, GPT 5.3 Codex, and Gemini 3.1 Pro — their strengths, quirks, and the one that implements your feature before you finish asking.
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What AI Told Me About How I Work — And What the Research Says to Do Next
I asked the AI agents I use daily to assess my working style, cross-referenced their observations against three recent whitepapers, got implementation advice, then fact-checked the advice against the actual docs — and then discovered I'd been ignoring how my three different AI tools read completely different instruction files. Five passes, multiple corrections, and a live demonstration of why you should never trust a confident AI summary without checking the source.
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Why I'm Using Rust for All My Code Now
I have reached the point where I would rather let Rust punish bad thinking at compile time than let dynamic languages punish me later in production. After an Exa search through recent Rust comparisons and engineering writeups, I finally understand why Rust developers are so passionate.
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Staying Relevant: How I Use Exa and Agents to Track the AI Tools Landscape
Cursor Automations, 95% weekly AI adoption, and the real differences between Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf — plus how to stop drowning in the pace of change.
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Inspired by Lamia Youseff: What My CS Freshman Actually Needs in the AI Era
My friend Lamia Youseff wrote a brilliant piece on education in the AI era. As an AI engineer with 25+ years in tech—and a parent with a CS freshman and a midshipman at the Merchant Marine Academy—I took her framework and pressure-tested it against what my sons are actually getting.
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Paying the Rust Tax Up Front for Agentic Performance
I ran an Exa MCP search on Rust in agentic systems and came away with a simple conclusion: for long-running, tool-heavy agents, paying more development tax up front can buy back reliability, latency, and operating efficiency later.
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Reflect on GitHub Copilot Sessions: A Practical Workflow for Finding Weak Prompts, Tool Churn, and Better Agent Patterns
How to review GitHub Copilot Chat and CLI sessions like an engineer: inspect logs, find poor techniques, use the newest VS Code and GitHub features, and turn repeated mistakes into better agent workflows.
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Context Engineering > Prompt Engineering: What 20+ Sources Agree On in 2026
A research synthesis on agent orchestration and context engineering best practices from Google, OpenAI, GitHub, and independent production teams. Includes a concrete step-by-step guide to implementing these patterns in a VS Code workspace.
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The VS Code Insiders + GitHub Copilot Context Engineering Playbook
A hands-on guide to structuring your VS Code repository so GitHub Copilot agent mode actually works. Covers the six-layer context stack, custom agents, skills, MCP servers, tool sets, and self-improving workflows—with every file you need to create.
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Shark Artist: Great White Theme — A VS Code Theme Built With AI Agents, for AI Agents
How I built an accessibility-first VS Code color theme inspired by great white sharks, using custom Copilot agents to enforce WCAG contrast, sync six theme variants, and style the emerging agentic coding experience.
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Agentic Development in 2026: How Software Engineers Stay Relevant
The AI landscape is moving fast, but the underlying engineering isn’t magic. Here is a practical guide on how developers can stay relevant by focusing on agent architecture, tools, and reliability.
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Vibe Coding with VSCode Insiders Agent Mode
How I leveraged VSCode Insiders Agent Mode and WSL to overcome Cursor failures and streamline Python environment management.
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Why Use GPT Actions? A Simple Guide for Developers in 2025
Learn how GPT Actions let you customize ChatGPT to call APIs and connect with external apps using natural language.
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The Model Context Protocol (MCP): A Straightforward Guide for Developers in 2025
Learn what MCP is, why it matters, and how you can easily use it to connect AI systems to your data and tools in 2025.
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Staying Relevant in AI: Beyond Stale Prompt Engineering
Practical strategies to keep your skills sharp in the rapidly evolving AI era - from AI agents to vibe coding.