Latest posts
- Why on-device agentic AI can't keep upMar 01, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
On-device AI agents sound great in theory. The maths on KV cache scaling, RAM budgets, and inference speed says otherwise.
- Using OpenCode in CI/CD for AI pull request reviewsFeb 26, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Why I replaced SaaS code review tools with OpenCode running in CI/CD pipelines - cheaper, more secure, and works with any Git provider
- Which web frameworks are most token-efficient for AI agents?Feb 23, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
I benchmarked 19 web frameworks on how efficiently an AI coding agent can build and extend the same app. Minimal frameworks cost up to 2.9x fewer tokens than full-featured ones.
- Who fixes the zero-days AI finds in abandoned software?Feb 17, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Anthropic's red team found 500+ critical vulnerabilities with Claude. But they focused on maintained software. The scarier problem is the long tail that nobody will ever patch.
- Attack of the SaaS clonesFeb 13, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
I cloned Linear's UI and core functionality using Claude Code in about 20 prompts. Here's what that means for SaaS companies.
- How to generate good looking reports with Claude Code, Cowork or CodexFeb 08, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
A step-by-step guide to extracting your brand design system and generating on-brand PDF reports and slide decks using coding agents.
- Self-improving CLAUDE.md filesFeb 08, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
A simple trick to keep your CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md files updated using the agent's own chat logs - turning a tedious chore into a 30 second job.
- Wall Street just lost $285 billion because of 13 markdown filesFeb 05, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Anthropic's 'legal tool' that triggered a $285bn selloff is 156KB of markdown. The panic reveals a hard truth about the future of software.
- Two kinds of AI users are emerging. The gap between them is astonishing.Feb 01, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
A bifurcation is happening in AI adoption - power users shipping products in days versus everyone else generating meeting agendas. Enterprise tool choices are accelerating the divide.
- Turns out I was wrong about TDDJan 25, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
I used to be a TDD sceptic - too much time writing tests for features that might get deleted. Then coding agents completely changed the economics of software testing.
- Why sandboxing coding agents is harder than you thinkJan 19, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Permission systems, Docker sandboxing, and log file secrets - why current approaches to securing coding agents fall short and what we might need instead.
- The Coming AI Compute CrunchJan 10, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Why DRAM shortages, not capital, will define AI infrastructure growth through 2027
- Which programming languages are most token-efficient?Jan 08, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Comparing token efficiency across 19 popular programming languages using RosettaCode data - from Clojure to C, there's a 2.6x difference.
- I ported Photoshop 1.0 to C# in 30 minutesJan 05, 2026martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Using Claude Code to port 120k lines of Pascal and 68k assembly to modern C# - and what this means for cross-platform development
- Why I'm building my own CLIs for agentsDec 29, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
MCP tools eat thousands of tokens. A simple CLI with instructions in your CLAUDE.md file uses 71 tokens and works brilliantly.
- Travel agents took 10 years to collapse. Developers are 3 years in.Dec 27, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Travel agents are the classic example of an industry killed by the internet. Software engineering is facing the same disruption, but the timeline is compressed.
- Are we dismissing AI spend before the 6x lands?Dec 22, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Critics are judging models trained on last-gen hardware. There's a 6x wave of compute already allocated - and it's just starting to produce results.
- Minification isn't obfuscation - Claude Code proves itDec 18, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Using ASTs and AI agents to reverse engineer minified JavaScript in minutes instead of weeks
- AI agents are starting to eat SaaSDec 15, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Software ate the world. Agents are going to eat SaaS.
- Has the cost of building software just dropped 90%?Dec 08, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Agentic coding tools are dramatically reducing software development costs. Here's why 2026 is going to catch a lot of people off guard.
- Are we in a GPT-4-style leap that evals can't see?Nov 30, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Gemini 3 Pro's design capabilities and Opus 4.5's reduced babysitting needs represent a subtle but significant leap that traditional benchmarks completely miss.
- I Finally Found a Use for IPv6Nov 25, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Using IPv6 with Cloudflare to run multiple services on a single server without a reverse proxy
- How I use Claude Code to manage sysadmin tasksNov 16, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
A practical approach to managing production infrastructure using git-tracked markdown files and Claude Code for small teams
- Could Excel agents unlock $1T in economic value?Nov 02, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Software engineers underestimate the scale of Excel usage. With agents now able to work directly in spreadsheets, we're looking at transforming how billions of dollars in business processes are managed.
- Are we really repeating the telecoms crash with AI datacenters?Oct 25, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Looking at actual token demand growth, infrastructure utilization, and capacity constraints - the economics don't match the 2000s playbook like people assume
- A non-technical CFO is shipping better code than the agencies he hiredOct 17, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
A non-technical CFO built a production operations dashboard with Claude Code that had failed with low-code tools and agencies. This shift in who can build software is going to change everything.
- Tracking MCP Server GrowthOct 12, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
I built a tracker to monitor the growth of MCP servers in the wild - turns out the ecosystem is growing faster than I expected
- Notes from MCP Dev Summit Europe: Where the Protocol Is HeadedOct 02, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Insights from MCP Dev Summit Europe on agentic discovery, client compatibility challenges, and the emerging field of agentic experience design
- How I make CI/CD (much) faster and cheaperSep 28, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Why GitHub Actions runners are slow and how bare metal servers can make your CI/CD 2-10x faster while costing 10x less
- Google AI Studio API has been unreliable for the past 2 weeksSep 24, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Google's Gemini AI Studio API has been suffering from severe reliability issues with little transparency about the problems on their status page.
- What happens when coding agents stop feeling like dialup?Sep 19, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
From magical to frustrating in months. Why AI coding agents feel like dial-up internet and what ultra-fast inference could unlock for developer productivity.
- Solving Claude Code's API Blindness with Static Analysis ToolsSep 01, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
How to give AI coding assistants complete visibility into APIs and third-party libraries using static analysis instead of basic text search.
- Are OpenAI and Anthropic Really Losing Money on Inference?Aug 27, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Deconstructing the real costs of running AI inference at scale. My napkin math suggests the economics might be far more profitable than commonly claimed.
- I gave Claude Code a folder of tax documents and used it as a professional tax agentAug 21, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Testing Claude Code beyond software engineering - using it as a tax agent to analyze documents and navigate complex tax scenarios in real-time.
- Beyond the Hype: Real-World MCP Support Across Major AI APIsAug 15, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Testing Model Context Protocol support across OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. The reality of cross-platform MCP implementation in 2025.
- Welcome to My BlogAug 10, 2025martin@martinalderson.com (Martin Alderson)
Starting a blog about AI-assisted development, MCP integrations, and building production software with modern tooling like Claude Code and Cursor.