FROM THE TRENCHES Issue №244

Opinions, Not Press Releases

Browse a curated front page, then move through focused topic and cluster hubs without losing older work to chronology.

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06
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12
Blog posts
244

Latest articles

Nine articles per page, ordered by publication date.

An agent reading a page on one side and completing a task against an authorized tool surface on the other AI & Agents

Can an AI Agent Use Your Product, or Only Read About It?

Readable means an assistant can cite you. Usable means it can complete a task and be refused when it should be. The second is an authorization problem, not a model problem.

A coding agent repo map split into a committed team artifact and a regenerable local cache AI & Agents

Graft Review 2026: Do Agent Repo Maps Belong in Git?

Graft writes your codebase into linked markdown so agents stop re-exploring it. We checked whether that map really travels through git, what its benchmarks prove and what belongs in version control instead.

A prompt passing through a pseudonymization layer, with the re-identification key staying on the controller side Business & Regulation

LLM Pseudonymization Gateways: Does the Prompt Leave GDPR Scope?

Platforms in this category promise that pseudonymizing a prompt makes a hosted model safe to use. The 2025 CJEU ruling and the EDPB guidance say something narrower. Here is the evidence a buyer actually has to collect.

Developer terminal session with compressed tool output AI & Agents

How Coding Agents Keep Token Bills in Check with Output Compression

Coding agents can waste many tokens on oversized tool output. Learn how output compression and decision-first observability make AI execution costs measurable again.

Lean token budgeting for AI coding agents AI & Agents

Smarter Token Usage with Your AI Coding Agent

Build a predictable token budget for coding agents by combining cache design, model routing, and context compression in the order that protects quality.

DeepSeek Harness plugin layers connecting models, tools, permissions and the agent loop AI & Agents

DeepSeek Harness Review: Is the Plugin Stack Production-Ready?

A buyer-focused review of DeepSeek Harness, its replaceable Cordis architecture, four agent presets, security boundaries and enterprise pilot fit.

Layered vLLM and NVIDIA Triton inference stack AI & Agents

Netflix's vLLM and Triton Stack: 7 Production Lessons

Netflix chose vLLM for operational fit, then found the real bottlenecks in constrained decoding, deployment, model loading and metrics. Here is what smaller teams should copy, and what they should buy instead.

OpenSandbox control plane separating AI coding agents from files, credentials, networks and production systems AI & Agents

OpenSandbox Review: Is Self-Hosting Worth It?

A buyer-focused review of OpenSandbox isolation, Credential Vault, Kubernetes operations, hidden costs, production gaps and a 30-day pilot plan.

Transformers.js running private local AI in a browser with WebGPU and WebAssembly fallback AI & Agents

Transformers.js Browser AI: When Local Inference Belongs in Your Product

A production guide to private in-browser AI: verified adoption, WebGPU and WASM, real cost, privacy boundaries, use cases, fallbacks and a 30-day pilot.

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