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Engineering

The Ship Loop

How a one-person studio ships software daily: the agent implements, proves it works in a real browser, deploys, and then proves it again in production.

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The rule

"It compiles" is not done. "Tests pass" is not done. Done is the agent driving the actual product in a browser — clicking the flow, reading the network tab — and then re-verifying against the production URL after deploy.

When to run it

Every feature, every fix, every deploy. It's a loop, not an event.

The play

  1. Scope the change and make the agent state its plan before touching code.
  2. Implement on a branch. Structural edits re-render; behavior changes get exercised end-to-end.
  3. Verify locally in a real browser session: the actual click path, console errors, API responses — not just unit tests.
  4. Deploy, then verify the live URL immediately: status codes, auth boundaries, one full user flow. Expect edge-cache propagation lag; retry before diagnosing ghosts.
  5. Log what shipped in the commit and in project memory, so the next session starts warm.
  6. Anything irreversible — deletes, migrations, money — pauses for a human yes.

Where it breaks

Verification theater: screenshots that raced an animation, tests that mock the exact thing that's broken. And deploying five changes at once — when production misbehaves you want one suspect, not a lineup.

Next play →

The Second Brain Contract

The three-layer memory system that lets AI agents pick up exactly where the last session ended: canon, state, and procedures — each with one home.

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Done for you

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