Graham Lee, D.Phil
@iamleeg.bsky.social
Writes software, writes about software, writes about writing software. https://sicpers.info/blog/ Documents interaction patterns in AI-augmented coding at https://chironcodex.com; support my work at https://patreon.com/chironcodex
“The most important skill in prompting is expertise in the domain you’re prompting for” www.seangoedecke.com/llms-reward-...
LLMs reward expertise
In the 2010s, if you had technical gaps (say, you couldn’t write CSS), you had to either rely on a skilled colleague or just hope that the answer to your exact problem was out there on the internet.…
seangoedecke.com
Open models help where closed models refuse: www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/20... I think people are discovering that paying $200/month for something they can get for free is not the best deal, and that's the real reason Dario is down on open weight and open source models.
Closed models refuse to help researcher swat Linux bug
'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that' is an effective sales pitch for open source
theregister.com
Oh, is it halloween again? This memo about open weight models[1] looks a lot like this memo about open source software[2]. [1] www.anthropic.com/news/positio... [2] www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/mem2/pa... P.S. www.sicpers.info/2026/01/conf...
Our position on open-weights models
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on open-weights models
anthropic.com
Why your AI assistant needs you to Call Out Errors How do you get your AI coding assistant back on track when it loses sync with your UI? In this live coding session, we demonstrate the Call Out Error pattern. 👉 Become a Patron at patreon.com/chironcodex youtube.com/shorts/_HKfo...
Why your AI assistant needs you to Call Out Errors #aicoding
How do you get your AI coding assistant back on track when it loses sync with your UI? In this extract from the Chiron Codex Live Coding 2 stream (https://studio.youtube.com/video/OcZbm0EaPWU), we…
youtube.com
Here's a handy guide to all the Chiron Codex interaction patterns in one poster! Designed for A3, should you choose to print it and display prominently for your colleagues (hint…) Thank you to Patreon member Tor for the suggestion!
Codeberg members voted for a resolution to ban repositories with significant LLM-generated components from the forge. As my code tends to demonstrate how to use LLM coding assistants, that means I've imported the repositories over to GitHub at github.com/iamleeg, and I'll update links incrementally.
iamleeg - Overview
Helping programmers to become software engineers, and software engineers to become centaurs. https://chironcodex.com - iamleeg
github.com
Apple-platform ISVs of Bluesky: who designs your app/document icons? I only know IconFactory (and Fiverr, but don't know who's good there).
logged into Mastodon for the first time in a long while it’s a lot of software developers egging each other on into career self-harm, I don’t know how else to say it if your career is symbol processing and your response to a new paradigm in symbol processing is “no” that’s a career off-ramp
Virtual filesystems let LLM-based agents use their existing tools to work with a system's data, avoiding the context bloat of describing MCP servers and tools. See a demo here: youtu.be/7MFHroXjKhU and read more: www.sicpers.info/2026/07/end-... #aicoding #mcp #softwareengineering
It's the End of Line for MCP: here's how you get much more context-efficient tool access.
I share my technique for replacing MCP servers with a simpler approach that uses significantly less context, is more readily usable, and that LLMs already understand using built-in tools. This is…
youtu.be
Being upset that the ACM are engaging with the latest computing machinery is certainly a take.
MCP hits the End of Line: I share my technique for replacing MCP servers with a simpler approach that uses significantly less context, is more readily reusable outside of AI tools, and that LLMs already understand using built-in capabilities. www.sicpers.info/2026/07/end-...
End of Line: Replacing MCP with Standard Filesystem Tools
Over on YouTube I shared a video where I demonstrate a more context-efficient approach for integrating existing systems into agentic tools than MCP, one that comes with built in access control mechani...
sicpers.info
Episode 60 of the SICPers podcast concludes a tour of the 1968 NATO conference on #softwareengineering with, bizarrely enough but blame the report writers, the keynote talk. www.sicpers.info/podcast/epis...
Episode 60: The NATO Software Engineering Conferences, Part 4
This episode reaches the end of the 1968 conference, discussing Alan Perlis's keynote address and submitted papers by Doug McIlroy, Edgser Dijkstra, and more. I summarise the impact of the conference…
sicpers.info
If your vendor charges by the token, they’re probably more into tokenmaxxing than you are. systima.ai/blog/claude-...
Claude Code Sends 4.7x More Tokens Than OpenCode Before Reading Your Prompt
Claude Code vs OpenCode token overhead measured at the API boundary. Out-of-the-box baselines, instruction file weight, MCP schema tax, subagent multipliers, and cache-write behaviour.
systima.ai
I went live today to show how the Chiron Codex interaction patterns help to solve a real-world coding problem: adding end-to-end tests to an existing web app. www.patreon.com/chironcodex/... #aicoding #softwareengineering #localai #pidev
Recorded Live Video: Live coding session! | Chiron Codex
This live coding session shows how the interaction patterns in the Chiron Codex pattern help to solve a real-world problem: adding end-to-en
patreon.com
Announcing Unified, Layered Documentation: join information silos and unlock efficiency gains with high-quality documentation that adapts to its audience's goals and roles. Read more www.sicpers.info/agency/, download the paper, and book a chat! #technicalwriting #documentation #softwareengineering
Unified Documentation: Clear Explanations of Complex Systems
You can take advantage of the simple explanations of complex situations that brings you the SICPers blog and podcast, the Chiron Codex videos, and the range of books on software engineering linked in…
sicpers.info
This extract from AI Morning Live demonstrates the "centaur effect": we aren't outsourcing our understanding of our work to the LLM, we're using it to enrich our own knowledge and experience and to create a better outcome. youtu.be/35BWxAHQ6qk More over at the Patreon: patreon.com/chironcodex
Combining AI-augmented planning with local knowledge to create a plan
In this extract from the first episode of AI Morning Live, Steven Baker and I discuss his plan to modernise the Objective-C support in GCC. He shares the transcript of his _Stop and Plan_ session…
youtu.be
Using WebObjects at web-scale with kubernetes and Firebase: my journey to use modern cloud-based deployment and integration with the "heritage" #webobjects web app framework, via #gnustep #gnustepweb and GDL2. www.sicpers.info/2026/07/usin...
Using WebObjects at web-scale with Kubernetes and Firebase
Obviously the title is click-bait. I'm not at web-scale; I'm still developing my product. And I don't use WebObjects. Except that I do. Read on. I'm using GNUstepWeb, the WebObjects 4.5-compatible…
sicpers.info
AI Morning Live, in which we identify our goals to create a lights-out system that can modernise a compiler's language support, then start working towards those goals: www.patreon.com/chironcodex/...
Recorded Live Video: AI Morning Live | Chiron Codex
Steven R. Baker and I discuss our goals to modernise objective-c support in GCC, and how we might use a lights-out AI-augmented development
patreon.com
Because I write about LLMs, I get asked: did an LLM write this? Here's my hi-fi, lo-tech creative process: youtu.be/eoDZUBCCiVM #llm #aiwriting #aicoding #amwriting #fountainpens
Did an LLM help write this?
I posted an article to my blog, Free Software and LLM Contribution Policies (https://www.sicpers.info/2026/06/free-software-and-llm-contribution-policies/), and the first question I got was "did an…
youtu.be
AI Morning Live with @srbaker.bsky.social starts tomorrow, Thursday July 2, at 08:00UTC (09:00BST/10:00EDT). We'll be discussing agentic development systems and designing/implementing one we're both comfortable with using. Tune in and join the discussion on Patreon: www.patreon.com/chironcodex/...
AI Morning Live | Patreon
Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!
patreon.com
Anti-LLM policies for contributing to free software projects are misguided, and weaken the argument for software freedom. I explain why in this post: www.sicpers.info/2026/06/free... #freesoftware #opensource #llm #aicoding
Free Software and LLM Contribution Policies
Multiple free software (or open source) projects have policies that forbid, or in some cases allow with extra scrutiny and scepticism, contributions that are supported by AI-augmented tools. I…
sicpers.info
Due to recent annoying memes, it is now MI6 policy that Alec Trevelyan is not allowed to stand next to James Bond.
Episode 59 of the SICPers podcast may as well have a Douglas Adams title: Where Dijkstra Went Wrong, Some More of Dijkstra's Greatest Mistakes, and Just Who is This Dijkstra Person Anyway? www.sicpers.info/podcast/epis... #podcast #softwareengineering #softwarecrisis
Episode 59: The NATO Software Engineering conferences, part 3
We're closing in on the end of the 1968 conference report, in this section discussion software service, maintenance, and other "special topics" including educating software engineers, and whether…
sicpers.info
Chiron Codex is going live! Join us at 08:00UTC on 2nd July for AI Morning Live, where @srbaker.bsky.social and I will discuss agentic software engineering, event-driven harnesses, and evaluating AI outputs, all using local inference. www.patreon.com/chironcodex/...
AI Morning Live | Patreon
Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!
patreon.com
as promised, here is my post on AI and ethics. I think unilateral disarmament in the face of powerful new tools is neither wise nor effective. I think those of us in tech have a particular responsibility to engage, participate and build better solutions. charitydotwtf.substack.com/p/make-ai-bo...
Make AI Boring Again
On the ethics of engagement, the problem with purity politics, and a world worth fighting for
charitydotwtf.substack.com
Have the people in charge of this reflecting pool thing considered draining the swamp in the middle of Washington DC?
I added new articles to gnustep-developer.com. The important one, because there aren't other good examples online, is about the structure of NeXT-style app menus that you use on platforms other than macOS: gnustep-developer.com/articles/men... #gnustep #crossplatform #appkit
GNUstep Developer
Hints and tips for working with the GNUstep developer tools and frameworks.
gnustep-developer.com
Does Spec-Driven Development replace agile? Are they actually at odds? This discussion with @iamleeg.bsky.social helped me overcome my biases. codeforthought.buzzsprout.com/1326658/epis...
[EN] Does Spec-Driven Development replace agile? With Graham Lee - Code for Thought
English Edition: Will spec-driven development replace agile processes? My guest Graham Lee (https://chironcodex.com/ ) and I discuss if there is still a place for agile software engineering in a...
codeforthought.buzzsprout.com
Dive into the Typing Pool: learn how I used ai-augmented software development techniques to build this handwriting transcription app www.patreon.com/chironcodex/... #gnustep #aisoftware #softwareengineering
