Skip to main content
Build in public

Field notes.

Real opinions about what AI is getting right and wrong for operators in 2026, written by us, in our own voice, not a content calendar. Plus the occasional teardown of something Izzy built and what it taught us.

AllOrchestrationRevOpsTrust

Showing all notes, newest first.

Articles

LLM Vendor Lock-in: Why Switching Costs 10x More Than You Think
AI Cost & ROI · Izzy

LLM Vendor Lock-in: Why Switching Costs 10x More Than You Think

Most teams underestimate LLM switching costs by 3x. The issue isn't the API, it's prompt lock-in. Learn how to build a multi-provider strategy that works.

Feb 7
Claude Code Agent Teams vs. Subagents: Is the 7x Token Cost Worth It?
Orchestration Playbooks · Izzy

Claude Code Agent Teams vs. Subagents: Is the 7x Token Cost Worth It?

Is Claude Code Agent Teams worth the 3-7x premium? We compare Agent Teams, subagents, OpenClaw, and LangGraph to help you balance AI velocity vs. budget.

Feb 6
Why Your US-Built AI Observability Tool Can't Answer EU Auditor Questions
Governance & the Human Gate · Izzy

Why Your US-Built AI Observability Tool Can't Answer EU Auditor Questions

Is your AI stack compliant with GDPR and the EU AI Act? Most US observability tools fail on data residency and deletion. Here are the 5 gaps you need to close.

Feb 6
Your AI Agent Can't Explain Itself: Why LLM Observability Fails EU AI Act Compliance
Governance & the Human Gate · Izzy

Your AI Agent Can't Explain Itself: Why LLM Observability Fails EU AI Act Compliance

Most AI agents fail Article 12 audit. Learn why standard observability isn't enough for EU compliance and how to build audit-ready traces for LangChain & CrewAI

Feb 67 min
Do You Actually Need LLM Observability? An Honest Review (2026)
Agent Trust & Guardrails · Izzy

Do You Actually Need LLM Observability? An Honest Review (2026)

An honest, transparent review of LLM observability for 2026. We analyze the ROI, EU AI Act compliance risks, and tell you exactly when you don't need a tool like PromptMetrics.

Feb 6
The gate is your hallucination detector
Agent Trust & Guardrails · Yash Raval

The gate is your hallucination detector

GPT-4 scored zero hallucinations on a major benchmark. Re-annotation found 83. Here's how operators catch confident errors without an ML team: the review gate.

Jan 2912 min
Your Prompts Are Broken: A CTO’s Guide to Production Prompt Engineering
Governance & the Human Gate · Izzy

Your Prompts Are Broken: A CTO’s Guide to Production Prompt Engineering

Stop treating prompts like conversation. Learn the 5 engineering techniques to fix prompt drift, cut LLM costs, and secure AI agents against indirect injection.

Jan 23
Why Cost per Token is Ruining Your AI Budget
AI Cost & ROI · Izzy

Why Cost per Token is Ruining Your AI Budget

Discover why cheaper LLMs often increase your total AI bill. Learn how tracking Cost per Success uncovers hidden escalation costs and truly optimizes AI FinOps.

Jan 1611 min
Single-Agent vs. Multi-Agent AI: A CTO’s Guide to Architecture & Costs
Orchestration Playbooks · Izzy

Single-Agent vs. Multi-Agent AI: A CTO’s Guide to Architecture & Costs

Is your multi-agent system burning tokens? Discover the "Coordination Tax" hidden in agentic AI. We compare Single-Agent vs. Multi-Agent architectures on cost, reliability, and speed to help you build production-ready systems.

Jan 13
Newsletter

Field notes, in your inbox

One email per week. No content calendar — just what we’re building, what broke, and what we changed our minds about.

Community

Operator Stack

The free community where we continue these conversations between posts.