Architecture Guides
Technical Architecture Articles
A practical set of technical architecture articles on system design, scaling, AI systems, and the tradeoffs that shape real engineering decisions.
These pieces are written to help teams reason more clearly about boundaries, failure modes, architecture patterns, and the operational consequences of technical choices.
What You’ll Find Here
System Design
Patterns, boundaries, and decisions that define how software behaves under growth and change.
Operational Reality
Why reliability, incidents, observability, and ownership matter as much as the design on paper.
AI and Modern Platforms
Architecture tradeoffs in AI systems, cloud platforms, retrieval, agents, and developer workflows.
Featured Architecture Reading
Technical
Your AI Architecture Isn’t Broken
AI architecture issues rarely come from the model. Learn where retrieval, data, agents, and fine-tuning break down in real systems.
Technical
Where AI Systems Drift
A companion guide to the interactive systems drift page, focused on which controls belong at which layer, when to use them, and what problem each one actually solves.
Technical
You're Probably Doing TypeScript Wrong (But I'm Here to Help)
TypeScript doesn’t make your code safe. It makes your design visible. Common mistakes, better patterns, and how to use TS without fighting it.
Technical
How to Architect Secure AI Agents Before They Architect Your Incident
Autonomous AI agents need governance, bounded authority, and clear accountability before they touch real systems.
Technical
Vector Embeddings Explained (with Hands-On Demo)
A practical explanation of vector embeddings, distance metrics, and why similar setups can behave differently in real systems, with a hands-on demo.
Technical
The RAG Atlas: A Visual Guide to Retrieval Patterns
An interactive visual reference covering ten RAG retrieval patterns — from Vanilla RAG to Graph RAG — with animated data-flow diagrams, a hoverable node inspector, and a simulator for tuning chunk size, top-k, and reranking.
Technical
The Scaling Gauntlet, Pt. 3 - Cache Rules Everything Around Me
Query tuning and connection pools got you stable. Caching gets you efficient. Here’s how to cache with intent, avoid stampedes, and invalidate without regret.
Technical
Teaching AI to See your UI
How I use Puppeteer to give an AI visibility into a real UI, letting it observe failures, reason from evidence, and repair its own mistakes.
Technical
Prompt Debt
Prompt Debt is the hidden architecture problem behind inconsistent AI behavior. Learn why systems drift, how context fails, and what teams must do to fix it.
Technical
Before You Refactor Anything, Be Sure You’re Solving the Right Problem
A practical guide to deciding when to refactor, what to rebuild, and how to redesign software without slowing your product or your team.
Technical
7 JavaScript APIs You Probably Aren’t Using (But Should)
Modern browsers quietly ship with APIs that can replace entire libraries — if you know they exist. This guide highlights seven underused JavaScript APIs, explaining what they do, when to use them, and the real-world benefits they unlock for developers and teams. From BroadcastChannel and PerformanceObserver to File System Access and View Transitions, you'll learn which are production-ready today and which to adopt with progressive enhancement.
Technical
What monads really are (and why you've been using them all along)
Monads sound intimidating — but you’ve already been using them. This guide walks through how Promise, Maybe, and Result patterns make your JavaScript and TypeScript code safer and cleaner. Starting with everyday examples and building up to your own Maybe monad, you’ll learn when to use them, when not to, and how they connect to modern frameworks like fp-ts and effect-ts.