Okay, two posts turned into a series of six. For some reason, I rebuilt the same news reader agent in every framework I could get my hands on. The collection now includes Claude Code, Agent SDK, Pi, Pi SDK, Pydantic AI, and smolagents. Each one does the same thing, but the approaches look different in each case. Some approaches (like Pydantic AI and Pi SDK) felt like the implementation of the same thing in different languages. Others, like smolagents, feel very different: generate code rather than loop through tool calls. A few random thoughts on this: - I really liked Pi! Its minimalistic approach made specialized workflows easier than Claude Code's all-batteries-included behemoth. - smolagents' CodeAgent underperformed out of the box, but generating code instead of running thought loops means you don't burn tokens at scale. I added it to my mental toolbox for the right use case. roman.pt/series/agent-engine…

The Claude Agent SDK lets you flip the execution model: the agent drives the logic, Python handles hard logic parts. I rewrote my Claude Code news reader with the Agent SDK. Everything lives in a single file now, and it feels like a normal Python project again. The code still behaves like a Claude Code session, but it's easier now to deploy and productize. roman.pt/posts/agent-sdk-rew… (follow-up to roman.pt/posts/claude-code-a…) I have a draft doing the same thing with Pi, and Deep Agents from LangChain is next.

I've been experimenting with inverting how I use LLM. In my recent app, the agent loop drives the logic, and code only shows up where I need it. I documented how it works. Feedback so far has been one "dude, just use OpenClaw" and "dude, just use Pi." roman.pt/posts/claude-code-a…

Promised a quick and dirty solution. Delivered on dirty. Failed on quick.

My customers asked for a faster horse. Instead, I created them a GPT interface app.

Monday procrastination trick — when creating @NotionHQ page, spend more time choosing emoji than writing content

If it hurts, do it more often. How we introduced feature flags at @BuildingRadar and what have we learned so far. Special thanks to @DevCycleHQ, the feature management provider of our choice. roman.pt/posts/feature-flags…

That fear of a connection timeout on the last step of a purchase while the browser is still loading the page.

Following the most exciting opportunity works well if you are an expert in a regular environment. Otherwise, you enthusiastically follow a random choice. Thinking aloud why HELL YEAH strategy may not be the best move and what to do about it. roman.pt/posts/say-maybe-to-…

I wrote about my most popular posts of 2022. As I expected, "Don't Let Dicts Spoil Your Code," featured on Hacker News, was the top post. Surprisingly, my random notes on SQLAlchemy and Alembic came in second place. Check it out: roman.pt/posts/most-popular-…

Just wrote a new blog post about my challenges of staying awake and sociable late at night. I wonder if it's just me, or you can relate. roman.pt/posts/surviving-lat…

Finished "Come and see," a 1985 anti-war film on the Nazi occupation of Belarus. Frightening and realistic. No guts to watch it again. youtube.com/watch?v=zjIiApN6…

Thanks for everything, @heroku. Removed my last app from the platform.

Current status: eating yogurt that my son brought back from school. According to my wife, yogurt kept in a warm backpack all day can hurt his stomach, and I work from home anyway.

After using AWS for ~14 years, I've internalised a handful of design patterns that I try to apply to my own software. I'm keen to know if it's the same for other folks. Roughly: tags, IDs (thrice), limits, pagination. (I'm not going to use the thread emoji)

The best part about the Portuguese language and culture is that you don't say, "I drink coffee." Instead, you "take it" as you take medicine. Makes total sense.

Google's code review guide for authors and reviewers google.github.io/eng-practic…

Treat unresolved comments in your tech and product specifications as tech debt. roman.pt/posts/resolve-discu…