Blog

The market sells workers. I write about the operating layer — gates, cases, and what the chrome actually shows.

Two stick figures: one cheers a rising LINES chart; the other points at an empty QUALITY box marked missing, with a half-day clock.
coding-tools2026-10-12

Harness scoreboards are not a verdict

A morning spike in lines per token is not proof your agent harness got better. Cost, throughput, and quality have to move together — or you measured noise.

Same spec sheet, two different objects: a screenless Pocket slab versus an ABH render with a tiny display.
ai-note-taker2026-10-04

AI note taker, episode 1: I would not buy the ABH Pocket yet

ABH Pocket copies the Pocket spec sheet. The photos do not match. The open path is PKT01 plus pocket-libre.

Black-and-white stick comic: a smiling hard-hat worker fits plywood onto a fake Agentic OS storefront while a terrified figure says it is just plywood.
C1#22026-10-02

The operating-system claim: rare, useful, easy to fake

An OS claim is a 15-of-220 shelf, and easy to fake. Memory inside it is ten gates, one question each.

Black-and-white stick comic with OpenClaw lobster logo: phone chat and Claude Code laptop linked through the lobster; Mini and Studio boxes; figure asks Is this instead of Claude; lobster says No. I'm the doorbell.
off-spine2026-10-01

OpenClaw when you already have Claude (or Claude Code)

Already on Claude Code? OpenClaw does not multiply your brain. Only a few pieces are unique: chat channels, always-on policy, and an optional local host.

Black-and-white stick comic: figure closes a laptop while a server keeps working and a phone shows CODE with a green dot; punchline The brain stayed at work.
off-spine2026-09-28

Remote Claude Code: the laptop is not the runtime

Local Claude Code dies with the lid. Put the session on an always-on server; drive it with Remote Control from phone and browser.

Black-and-white stick comic: a buyer peels an OPUS 5.5 sticker off a box, revealing CHEAPER FASTER and a FOUR 400s note; clerk says Same shelf. Different receipt.
off-spine2026-09-22

Claude Opus 5.5: cheaper, faster, and four breaks

Opus 5.5 on Claude API: $4/$20, cache $0.20, four breaks — wiki to claude-api, claude-code, openclaw, litellm.

The map

21 drafts · not public articles yet

C1 — Category: why “agents” is the wrong noun (demand: scarce OS shelf)

  • 001Why “AI agents” became wallpaper (and what replaces the noun)draft
  • 005Boards are read-models, not the runtimedraft
  • 006Observe → truth → propose → gate → humans decide (the loop as product spine)draft

C2 — Observe: nothing typed twice (demand: channels + docs; Stage-1 C: T03)

  • 015Document intake is observation, not “DMS AI”draft
  • 019Invisible demand: counting requests nobody loggeddraft

C3 — Truth: case, memory, graph (demand: brain/ontology 42; Stage-1 C: T04,T44,T38)

  • 021Shared operational truth vs chat contextdraft
  • 022The Case object: durable situation, not a threaddraft
  • 028Approved baseline ≠ current timeline (the only honest slip)draft

C4 — Understand & predict (demand: anti-pilot 36; criteria 4–5)

  • 034Lead-time exposure before site delaydraft

C5 — Gate & authority (demand: HITL 27 + govern 35; Stage-1 C: T13,T16,T34)

  • 041Autonomy ↔ human authority: name both sidesdraft
  • 042HITL as a runtime primitive, not a FAQdraft
  • 046Stalled approval ≠ slow approvaldraft

C6 — Execute & orchestration (demand: orchestration 39; C02/C05)

  • 051Closed execution loop vs recommendation dashboarddraft

C7 — Verify, learn, sleep (demand: eval stacks; Stage-1 enablers)

  • 061Verify outcome ≠ HTTP 200draft

C8 — Interfaces people actually see (demand: market defaults to chat; our gap)

  • 071Chat is the default product — and why that’s a trapdraft
  • 074Front page as projection of cases, exposures, waiting decisionsdraft

C10 — Market language & GTM (demand: how to speak without mush)

  • 091Five verb bets: Govern, Run, Work, Build, Knowdraft
  • 098Measurement language over feature gridsdraft
  • 100The publishing spine: how these 100 posts reinforce one thesisdraft

ai-note-taker

  • —AI note taker, episode 2: PKT01 without the clouddraft

figma-prototype

  • —Figma wins the board. Tokens win the paint. The library wins the chrome.draft