Software engineering field notes — Issue 29

Systems, tools, and trade-offs.

Devspedia covers web platforms, cloud systems, AI tools, performance, and security for engineers building and operating software.

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Latest analysis

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02

August 11, 2026 · 20 min

Replayable Test Harnesses for AI Agents

Learn how to test AI agent workflows with recorded traces, deterministic replay, fault injection, and assertions around side effects.

03

July 4, 2026 · 15 min

Taming Tail Latency with Hedged Requests

Learn how to cut p99 latency in APIs and AI agents with hedged requests: tuning the hedge delay, hedging only idempotent work, and capping the extra load.

04

July 1, 2026 · 23 min

Resource Budgets for Tool-Using AI Agents

Learn how to stop runaway AI agents with token budgets, cost ceilings, step limits, wall-clock deadlines, loop detection, and graceful degradation.

05

June 19, 2026 · 16 min

Compensating Actions for Tool-Using AI Agents

Learn how to make AI agent side effects safer with compensating actions, recovery policies, idempotent undo steps, and operator-ready audit trails.

06

June 13, 2026 · 17 min

Agent Command Ledgers for Reliable AI Workflows

Learn how to make AI agent side effects recoverable with command ledgers, fenced execution, reconciliation jobs, and replay-safe workflows.

07

June 12, 2026 · 15 min

Sandboxing Tool-Using AI Agents

Learn how to run tool-using AI agents behind capability manifests, policy gates, sandboxes, audit logs, and recovery controls.

08

June 11, 2026 · 14 min

Designing Durable Agentic Workflows

Learn how to design agentic workflows that survive retries, crashes, tool failures, human approvals, and partial progress without losing intent.

09

June 6, 2026 · 16 min

Designing Circuit Breakers for Distributed Services

Learn how to stop cascading failures with circuit breakers that open on real dependency pain, probe recovery safely, and expose clear fallbacks.