Josh @ Pixlode

20+ years building software. Now building Pixlode: agent harnesses, AI business workflows, AI-assisted dev, and cleaning up the slop AI can leave behind.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

I asked Claude to audit my agent harness because parts of it felt painfully slow.

Took its top suggestions and A/B tested them on a throwaway project (BTC tower defense game).

Results, the changes were:

- ~50% slower
- Higher token costs
- More bugs

Turns out the parts I thought were slowing me down were the parts keeping everything together.

I am a proud papa.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@matt_teeixeira The agent harness is the product. The pipeline architecture is built for a GUI, the CLI is still easiest to work with 🤷‍♂️

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@gregisenberg One agent to the next is different. It would be cool to see their end FICO/Credit score at the end of the run.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@sivalabs I still have trust issues.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@matt_teeixeira Nope! Feels like wasted time.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

You’re asking a question with only one or two real answers.

1. Pray and fast about it. Leave it between you and God.

2. Talk to the bishop, tell him of the situation. Have the bishop cover the missing amount and pay tithing.

I have other thoughts, but that’s what it comes down to.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@RobKarpathios @mhp_guy Genius!

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@tberlinger It has been a game changer to have Codex audit the work Claude Code has done. Having a peer review has caught many issues missed during development.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

Agents are very eager to please and do more than asked.

I added a section in my CLAUDE.md called,

## DRY and YAGNI

**YAGNI.** Don't introduce interfaces, configuration, wrappers, utility files, or generalized APIs for hypothetical future use.

**DRY.** The second time a piece of UI, logic, or structure shows up, extract it into whatever this stack uses for reuse.

**When they collide,** extract without generalizing.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@tangjun0302 What kind of gates and guardrails do you have in place?

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@launch_llama If it’s just Claude. I think I’d be alright 😬

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@patroza @theo Those kind of nights were some of the best!

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@Nishant_N_25 Opus 5.5 for planning and testing
Fable 5.1 for development
GPT 6.1 Sol for validation and review

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@JoshuaBarzon Don’t Oklahoma the great state of Texas!

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@sattyyouneed And then when you do catch them misbehaving, they are so apologetic about it. Fun times.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@DanielSmidstrup All of them will. They are eager to be please.

Treat your agents like employees and build systems to structure them so they don’t go outside the norms.

[Josh @ Pixlode @pixlode]

@chiefkittenme In the US. Everyone I have talked to from outside of the US has strong feeling about how gross Root Beer tastes. Often referred to as tasting like medicine. S’mores are also offensive to a Welsh co-worker of mine 😂