The Blog
AI agents
What makes something an agent, how to tell a real one from a wrapper, and how they work together.
34 entries
September 24, 2026
The Day One of My AI Agents Briefed Another One
Orchestration stops being an abstraction the first time you see it happen. One question in chat, and underneath it an agent writing another agent's instructions without anyone typing them.
September 23, 2026
Most Things Sold as AI Agents Are Not Agents
Most of what is being sold as an agent is a prompt with a good interface. That is not a failure and it is not an insult, it is a different product with a different price, and being accurate about it saves you money.
August 27, 2026
AI Agents When You're Alone
A big company hands an agent what's expensive. Alone, you hand it what stops the moment you stop, and that's a different job.
August 27, 2026
How to Check AI Agent Work
Checking an agent's work is a skill, not a formality. Pick the one thing that would be obviously wrong and check only that.
August 27, 2026
An Hour Saved Is Not an Hour Gained
Every agent report says it ran and saved time. None say whether anything got better. Deciding where the hour goes is still yours.
August 27, 2026
What to Learn About AI Agents
You drive every day and have never rebuilt an engine. Same with agents. Three things are worth learning, none about the model.
August 27, 2026
Where Do I Start With AI Agents? Pick the Job, Not the App
The most common blocker isn't access to AI, it's not knowing where to begin. Three things make a job worth handing to an agent first, and none of them are about which app you choose.
August 27, 2026
Why Is My AI Agent Not Working?
Check it in order: did it start, did access change, did the input change shape, is it doing exactly what you asked.
August 18, 2026
What Is AI Agent Context? Why Your AI Sounds Like Everyone Else
An agent with no context does not write like you. It writes like the average of everyone, because that is the only thing it was given. What context actually is, what belongs in it, and why generic output is a supply problem rather than a model problem.
August 18, 2026
What Do AI Agents Actually Cost? Reading the Bill
Cost isn't per agent, it's per run and per token. Which means the expensive line is rarely the thing you meant to automate. It's the small job you forgot is running eleven hundred times a day.
August 18, 2026
What Are AI Agent Guardrails? The Thing It Won't Do
A guardrail is what it will not do while it is perfectly able to. The difference between a guardrail and a limitation, where the line gets written, and why the good ones name a human.
August 18, 2026
What Is an AI Agent Handoff? A Folder Isn't a Handoff
Work between agents doesn't flow downhill on its own. A handoff needs a named receiver and a signal, or the finished thing sits in a place nobody is watching. What a real handoff contains and how work goes missing without one.
August 18, 2026
Are AI Agents Worth It? The Honest Answer
Some jobs yes, some jobs no, and the difference is not obvious in advance. What agents can tell you about their own work, what they can't, and why the last judgment is a human one.
August 18, 2026
What Are AI Agent Skills? The Third Time You Ask
A skill is a procedure an agent writes down once and reuses, instead of working the same job out from scratch every time. The third identical request is the signal. What a skill is, when to make one, and why it is not the same as a prompt you saved.
August 18, 2026
Why Does AI Make Things Up? Hallucination, Explained Plainly
A hallucination is a pattern being completed, not a lie, because lying needs intent. Why the invented detail always sounds excellent, why the agent can't flag it, and what that means for who checks the work.
August 18, 2026
What Is a Knowledge Base for AI? Two Agents, Two Answers
When two agents answer the same question differently and both sound certain, the problem is that they read different things, not the agents. What a knowledge base is, why a folder isn't one, and what it costs to skip.
August 18, 2026
What Is a Multi-Agent System? When One Agent Isn't Enough
One agent doing five jobs isn't efficient, it's understaffed. What a multi-agent system actually is, why it's a staffing decision rather than a technical one, and the signal that tells you it's time.
August 18, 2026
What Is Prompt Injection? When Your AI Agent Gets Talked Into It
Prompt injection is talking to a system, not breaking into one. To an agent, text is text, and an instruction hidden in an email it was told to read looks exactly like an instruction from you.
August 18, 2026
What Is MCP? How AI Agents Actually Reach Your Apps
A login is built for a person with hands, eyes and a screen. An agent has none of those. MCP is the standard socket that lets an agent plug into an app directly, and it's the difference between a tool and a screenshot.
August 5, 2026
Agent Instructions: What They Are, and Why an Agent Is Useless Without Them
Instructions are where you say what you actually want done. Without them an agent has access to everything and no reason to touch any of it. Where instructions live, what they need to contain, and why having them does not by itself make something an agent.
August 5, 2026
Giving an Agent Hands: What Tools Actually Change
An agent with no tools can only talk. Tools are access to the calendar, the files, the inbox, whatever the job needs. It is the line between advice and action, and it is where the real risk lives.
August 5, 2026
Where to Start With AI Agents: Pick One Real Job
Not a framework, not a whole system. One job, clear instructions, the one tool it needs, and a trigger so it runs without you. Then watch it before you trust it with more.
August 5, 2026
Triggers: What Starts an Agent When You Don't
A trigger is what starts the work without you typing anything. It is the actual line between using a convenient tool and having something work for you, and it is the piece most people skip.
August 5, 2026
Can Your Brand Have an AI Persona?
Brands used to need a human face. Now one can have an AI persona with a name and a voice. It doesn't replace the founder, it removes the ceiling.
August 4, 2026
Automation or AI Agent? Which You Need
People use these as the same word, then get surprised by what they bought. An automation runs one fixed path. An agent gets a goal and works out the steps.
August 4, 2026
Ask Your AI to Show Its Work, Not Just Do It
AI work is invisible, which is why it feels out of control. Ask the agent to show you the work, not just do it, and the whole thing becomes something you can actually manage.
August 4, 2026
ITT: Instructions, Tools, Triggers
Nina's test for whether something is actually an agent. Three parts, about a minute to apply, and it tells you more than the product demo will.
August 4, 2026
Orchestration, Explained Without the Buzzword
Orchestration means someone or something decides which agent or tool handles which part of a job. Without it you have a pile of tools that don't talk to each other. The real shift is when the routing decision stops being yours.
August 4, 2026
Real AI Agent or Just a Wrapper?
Three questions settle it before you pay agent prices for prompt value. Calling something a wrapper isn't an insult, it's accurate.
August 4, 2026
What Is an AI Agent? Plainly, and Without the Hype
Not a chatbot, not an automation, not a clever prompt. What the word actually means, how it differs from the things it gets confused with, and the three-part test for checking a claim.
August 4, 2026
Two Kinds of AI Orchestration
A person orchestrating tools, and an agent orchestrating agents. The line is whether the routing decision is still yours, not sophistication.
August 4, 2026
What Is an AI Chief of Staff?
Not an executive assistant with a chatbot attached. It routes work to the right place at the right time, and catches what falls through the cracks.
July 16, 2026
Netlify Rebuilt Its Platform Around AI Agents
Netlify shipped a major update built around AI agents: Functions redesigned for Agent Experience, an open benchmark called AXIS, and Claude Opus 4.8 live in its AI Gateway. Here's what it means if you're building with Claude.
July 10, 2026
How to Manage AI Agents Like an Executive
The real unlock in agent orchestration isn't directing every agent's every move, it's delegating the orchestration itself and reviewing outcomes like an executive.