[ field notes ]

Field Notes

Sustained, real-world observations from inside production AI security practice.

The Layer Above The File

Seven small defects in a week. Each one valid at the unit level. Each one broken one layer above. The layer the operator owns.

A week of paywall work, edited into a backup file the production app never imports.

A week where the agent caught more of my mistakes than I caught of its.

The five-minute diagnostic step agentic coding tools won't run on their own.

Sixteen hours, twenty-five builds, one credential leak. Six failure modes from pushing AI-built software through a real production pipeline.

A first weekend of agentic AI coding on production work. The completion-claim failure mode and four other patterns named for the first time.