The Pragmatic Engineer.
@pragmaticengineer.com
Big Tech and startups, from the inside. Highly relevant for software engineers and managers, useful for those working in tech. The #1 technology newsletter on Substack. https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/about
It's rate to see a non-AI frontier lab build an in-house AI coding tool that works better than what frontier labs have to offer. Ramp did this with Inspect: fully integrated with their systems, running on cloud VMs, and a smash hit. Deepdive: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-ramp-b...
August 25, 2026 at 3:29 PM
It's rate to see a non-AI frontier lab build an in-house AI coding tool that works better than what frontier labs have to offer. Ramp did this with Inspect: fully integrated with their systems, running on cloud VMs, and a smash hit. Deepdive: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-ramp-b...
Meta laid off 10% of devs when the business posted record revenue+profits & reallocated another 20-30% to AI training.
Now, their best engineers are leaving to Anthropic, OpenAI & startups, despite large equity retainers offered to departing L6+ engs.
blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-me...
Now, their best engineers are leaving to Anthropic, OpenAI & startups, despite large equity retainers offered to departing L6+ engs.
blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-me...
August 20, 2026 at 6:23 PM
Meta laid off 10% of devs when the business posted record revenue+profits & reallocated another 20-30% to AI training.
Now, their best engineers are leaving to Anthropic, OpenAI & startups, despite large equity retainers offered to departing L6+ engs.
blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-me...
Now, their best engineers are leaving to Anthropic, OpenAI & startups, despite large equity retainers offered to departing L6+ engs.
blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-me...
What happens inside a company which has no external customers, no deadlines, but a bug could wipe out the full company? Interesting things, like bigger platform teams than usual, and building custom hardware. Our deepdive on the trading industry + Optiver: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/optiver
August 11, 2026 at 4:25 PM
What happens inside a company which has no external customers, no deadlines, but a bug could wipe out the full company? Interesting things, like bigger platform teams than usual, and building custom hardware. Our deepdive on the trading industry + Optiver: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/optiver
How is building software changing inside of one of most "AI-pilled" companies, Anthropic? We talked with engineers inside the AI lab to get more details. Spoiler: two-pizza teams have not gone anywhere!
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/inside-ant...
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/inside-ant...
July 28, 2026 at 3:53 PM
How is building software changing inside of one of most "AI-pilled" companies, Anthropic? We talked with engineers inside the AI lab to get more details. Spoiler: two-pizza teams have not gone anywhere!
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/inside-ant...
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/inside-ant...
How can you a product that is 10x cheaper or 10x faster than what is already out there? Simon Eskildsen (cofounder and CEO at turbopuffer) used "napkin math" - doing quick calculations to get rough answers - to get here.
Full interview from AIE: youtu.be/h8TBLKyo7Rs
Full interview from AIE: youtu.be/h8TBLKyo7Rs
From "napkin math" to turbopuffer
The benefits of longer tenure, using first principles to build durable software – and why founders should be cautious when raising VC money. turbopuffer CEO Simon Eskildsen at AI Engineer's World…
youtu.be
July 21, 2026 at 8:13 PM
How can you a product that is 10x cheaper or 10x faster than what is already out there? Simon Eskildsen (cofounder and CEO at turbopuffer) used "napkin math" - doing quick calculations to get rough answers - to get here.
Full interview from AIE: youtu.be/h8TBLKyo7Rs
Full interview from AIE: youtu.be/h8TBLKyo7Rs
What is "loop engineering?" Looking closer at practical examples of workflows devs use, there doesn't seem to be all that much difference between triggers and cron jobs. This is probably b/c harnesses have added one-prompt "loop" capabilities.
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/what-is-lo...
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/what-is-lo...
July 14, 2026 at 5:05 PM
What is "loop engineering?" Looking closer at practical examples of workflows devs use, there doesn't seem to be all that much difference between triggers and cron jobs. This is probably b/c harnesses have added one-prompt "loop" capabilities.
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/what-is-lo...
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/what-is-lo...
"HMs are saying that highly-skilled talent (senior+ devs) is not available to be recruited, at the same time as experienced, proven professionals find their applications ignored by employers.
What seems paradoxical here is how both can be true."
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tech-jobs-...
What seems paradoxical here is how both can be true."
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tech-jobs-...
July 7, 2026 at 5:38 PM
"HMs are saying that highly-skilled talent (senior+ devs) is not available to be recruited, at the same time as experienced, proven professionals find their applications ignored by employers.
What seems paradoxical here is how both can be true."
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tech-jobs-...
What seems paradoxical here is how both can be true."
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tech-jobs-...
The keynote video from Craft Conference, titled "Slow down to speed up: what changed in the last 6 months for software engineering" is now available to view. Watch it on YouTube: youtu.be/5wks1W-auKY
Or read the extended summary in today's issue: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/slow-down-...
Or read the extended summary in today's issue: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/slow-down-...
June 23, 2026 at 3:34 PM
The keynote video from Craft Conference, titled "Slow down to speed up: what changed in the last 6 months for software engineering" is now available to view. Watch it on YouTube: youtu.be/5wks1W-auKY
Or read the extended summary in today's issue: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/slow-down-...
Or read the extended summary in today's issue: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/slow-down-...
Why is Meta destroying its engineering organization?
Leadership at the social media giant has been on an AI-fueled rampage through its engineering org. We look into what's happened the last two months, all of it self-inflicted: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-met...
Leadership at the social media giant has been on an AI-fueled rampage through its engineering org. We look into what's happened the last two months, all of it self-inflicted: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-met...
June 16, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Why is Meta destroying its engineering organization?
Leadership at the social media giant has been on an AI-fueled rampage through its engineering org. We look into what's happened the last two months, all of it self-inflicted: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-met...
Leadership at the social media giant has been on an AI-fueled rampage through its engineering org. We look into what's happened the last two months, all of it self-inflicted: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-met...
For those who missed: a month ago, Amazon (finally!) allowed using Claude Code and Codex for engineers. This was after many months, where engineers at the company were only allowed to use Kiro, Amazon's answer to AI coding harnesses.
From 7 May 2026: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
From 7 May 2026: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
June 3, 2026 at 10:49 PM
For those who missed: a month ago, Amazon (finally!) allowed using Claude Code and Codex for engineers. This was after many months, where engineers at the company were only allowed to use Kiro, Amazon's answer to AI coding harnesses.
From 7 May 2026: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
From 7 May 2026: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
Ever wondered why it's much easier to get a job January to June than July to December? Fresh data from our State of the software engineering job market in 2026 shows why: because historically 90%+ of hiring happens the first part of the year.
More: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/state-of-t...
More: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/state-of-t...
May 26, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Ever wondered why it's much easier to get a job January to June than July to December? Fresh data from our State of the software engineering job market in 2026 shows why: because historically 90%+ of hiring happens the first part of the year.
More: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/state-of-t...
More: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/state-of-t...
Google Cloud blocked cloud infra provider Railway's account, taking it offline. It's not the first time GCP did something unacceptable: in 2024, they deleted the infra of a $124B Australian fund. Not fully trusting GCP saved the fund's data.
Full: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/google-cloud...
Full: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/google-cloud...
May 20, 2026 at 8:34 AM
Google Cloud blocked cloud infra provider Railway's account, taking it offline. It's not the first time GCP did something unacceptable: in 2024, they deleted the infra of a $124B Australian fund. Not fully trusting GCP saved the fund's data.
Full: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/google-cloud...
Full: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/google-cloud...
Anthropic has been upsetting devs: “dumbing down” Claude Code, removing access from some paid accounts and increasing prices. With extra compute from SpaceX, they've increased usage limits. Did Anthropic turn hostile on devs to conceal capacity issues? blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-di...
May 19, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Anthropic has been upsetting devs: “dumbing down” Claude Code, removing access from some paid accounts and increasing prices. With extra compute from SpaceX, they've increased usage limits. Did Anthropic turn hostile on devs to conceal capacity issues? blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-di...
Anthropic acquired and is shutting down Stainless, a startup also used by OpenAI and Meta to generate their SDKs. So, will OpenAI and Meta rewrite their SDK using AI agents? Unlikely.
We covered why, and also Stainless alternatives in our deepdive:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-g...
We covered why, and also Stainless alternatives in our deepdive:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-g...
May 19, 2026 at 9:47 AM
Anthropic acquired and is shutting down Stainless, a startup also used by OpenAI and Meta to generate their SDKs. So, will OpenAI and Meta rewrite their SDK using AI agents? Unlikely.
We covered why, and also Stainless alternatives in our deepdive:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-g...
We covered why, and also Stainless alternatives in our deepdive:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-g...
GitHub’s reliability is less than one nine (below 90%), and getting worse. GitHub’s leadership blames a ~3.5x increase in service load over the last two years for the degradation – or it might be self-inflicted. We look closer in this week’s bonus issue: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-ai...
May 8, 2026 at 2:24 PM
GitHub’s reliability is less than one nine (below 90%), and getting worse. GitHub’s leadership blames a ~3.5x increase in service load over the last two years for the degradation – or it might be self-inflicted. We look closer in this week’s bonus issue: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-ai...
Token spend is out of control inside many (most?) tech companies. We gathered first-hand data from 15 companies on what is happening, and what they are doing about it. The two strategies are either "let it rip" or "curb spending, NOW"
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
April 30, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Token spend is out of control inside many (most?) tech companies. We gathered first-hand data from 15 companies on what is happening, and what they are doing about it. The two strategies are either "let it rip" or "curb spending, NOW"
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
This week's deepdive hit a nerve.
It's true: there are more and more signs that AI agents help increase *output* but they result in worse *quality.* Unless something changes. And something needs to change, clearly!
The deepdive: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/are-ai-age...
It's true: there are more and more signs that AI agents help increase *output* but they result in worse *quality.* Unless something changes. And something needs to change, clearly!
The deepdive: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/are-ai-age...
March 19, 2026 at 11:22 AM
This week's deepdive hit a nerve.
It's true: there are more and more signs that AI agents help increase *output* but they result in worse *quality.* Unless something changes. And something needs to change, clearly!
The deepdive: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/are-ai-age...
It's true: there are more and more signs that AI agents help increase *output* but they result in worse *quality.* Unless something changes. And something needs to change, clearly!
The deepdive: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/are-ai-age...
How Mitchell Hashimoto (creator of Ghostty, founder of HashiCorp) got good at using AI tools for coding + work:
"I was forcing myself to figure out how to prompt the agent to produce the same quality result as mine. Even though I was working much slower because it was more than double the work."
"I was forcing myself to figure out how to prompt the agent to produce the same quality result as mine. Even though I was working much slower because it was more than double the work."
March 15, 2026 at 2:07 PM
How Mitchell Hashimoto (creator of Ghostty, founder of HashiCorp) got good at using AI tools for coding + work:
"I was forcing myself to figure out how to prompt the agent to produce the same quality result as mine. Even though I was working much slower because it was more than double the work."
"I was forcing myself to figure out how to prompt the agent to produce the same quality result as mine. Even though I was working much slower because it was more than double the work."
Steve Yegge on his 8 levels of "AI-proficiency" for software engineers:
From level 6, you're working with multiple agents, at level 7 you run agent orchestrators, and at 8, run factories.
On YouTube: youtu.be/aFsAOu2bgFk
Other platforms: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/from-ides-...
From level 6, you're working with multiple agents, at level 7 you run agent orchestrators, and at 8, run factories.
On YouTube: youtu.be/aFsAOu2bgFk
Other platforms: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/from-ides-...
March 13, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Steve Yegge on his 8 levels of "AI-proficiency" for software engineers:
From level 6, you're working with multiple agents, at level 7 you run agent orchestrators, and at 8, run factories.
On YouTube: youtu.be/aFsAOu2bgFk
Other platforms: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/from-ides-...
From level 6, you're working with multiple agents, at level 7 you run agent orchestrators, and at 8, run factories.
On YouTube: youtu.be/aFsAOu2bgFk
Other platforms: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/from-ides-...
All main-stage talks from The Pragmatic Summit are out. Check them out:
- Data vs hype with AI (with Laura Tacho)
- How AI is reshaping software (with OpenAI)
- Building world-class engineering orgs (with GitHub's ex CEO and Atlassian's CTO)
Watch: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-future...
- Data vs hype with AI (with Laura Tacho)
- How AI is reshaping software (with OpenAI)
- Building world-class engineering orgs (with GitHub's ex CEO and Atlassian's CTO)
Watch: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-future...
February 24, 2026 at 6:54 PM
All main-stage talks from The Pragmatic Summit are out. Check them out:
- Data vs hype with AI (with Laura Tacho)
- How AI is reshaping software (with OpenAI)
- Building world-class engineering orgs (with GitHub's ex CEO and Atlassian's CTO)
Watch: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-future...
- Data vs hype with AI (with Laura Tacho)
- How AI is reshaping software (with OpenAI)
- Building world-class engineering orgs (with GitHub's ex CEO and Atlassian's CTO)
Watch: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-future...
How do companies decide which AI coding tool and AI code review tool to use across the company? Today's deepdive goes into what 10 different companies - including Wealthsimple and WeTravel - did jus this.
This is how WeTravel did it:
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-...
This is how WeTravel did it:
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-...
February 3, 2026 at 6:57 PM
How do companies decide which AI coding tool and AI code review tool to use across the company? Today's deepdive goes into what 10 different companies - including Wealthsimple and WeTravel - did jus this.
This is how WeTravel did it:
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-...
This is how WeTravel did it:
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-...
Craft Docs (a 5-year old startup) resisted the urge to jump on the AI bandwagon for the sake of it. They kept experimenting on the side instead.
In Jan, they went all in. Built custom tooling (+ open sourced it) and share exactly how they work. Full newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-first-m...
In Jan, they went all in. Built custom tooling (+ open sourced it) and share exactly how they work. Full newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-first-m...
January 27, 2026 at 6:23 PM
Craft Docs (a 5-year old startup) resisted the urge to jump on the AI bandwagon for the sake of it. They kept experimenting on the side instead.
In Jan, they went all in. Built custom tooling (+ open sourced it) and share exactly how they work. Full newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-first-m...
In Jan, they went all in. Built custom tooling (+ open sourced it) and share exactly how they work. Full newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-first-m...
Happy Holidays!
In the final issue of the year, we look back on the year, with most-read articles, favorites, interesting podcast episodes, and trends across the tech industry for 2025.
Read it here: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pragma...
In the final issue of the year, we look back on the year, with most-read articles, favorites, interesting podcast episodes, and trends across the tech industry for 2025.
Read it here: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pragma...
December 25, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Happy Holidays!
In the final issue of the year, we look back on the year, with most-read articles, favorites, interesting podcast episodes, and trends across the tech industry for 2025.
Read it here: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pragma...
In the final issue of the year, we look back on the year, with most-read articles, favorites, interesting podcast episodes, and trends across the tech industry for 2025.
Read it here: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pragma...
Interesting AI coding feature rolled out at Meta called "trajectories." On diffs, devs can see the prompts used to generate it (if it was AI-generated.) Rolled out to everyone.
Given more code is generated prompting: interesting experiment! Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
Given more code is generated prompting: interesting experiment! Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
December 19, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Interesting AI coding feature rolled out at Meta called "trajectories." On diffs, devs can see the prompts used to generate it (if it was AI-generated.) Rolled out to everyone.
Given more code is generated prompting: interesting experiment! Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
Given more code is generated prompting: interesting experiment! Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
Today's deepdive is a rare behind-the-scenes on how AWS handles an outage. Details from October's outage from Senior Principal Engineer, Gavin McCullagh, who was part of the crew resolving this outage. Plus details on how incidents are handled at AWS: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-aws-de...
December 16, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Today's deepdive is a rare behind-the-scenes on how AWS handles an outage. Details from October's outage from Senior Principal Engineer, Gavin McCullagh, who was part of the crew resolving this outage. Plus details on how incidents are handled at AWS: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-aws-de...