{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1", "title": "The Cartographer blog", "home_page_url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/", "feed_url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/feed.json", "description": "Short, cited articles from Team Cartographer on working with coding agents, with sources.", "language": "en-US", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev" } ], "items": [ { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/run-a-retrospective-on-your-agent-session", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/run-a-retrospective-on-your-agent-session", "title": "Run a retrospective on your agent session, not only the code", "summary": "Teams have long paused to ask how they worked, not just what they shipped. Here's what Scrum and the Agile principles say, and a small version for one.", "date_published": "2026-11-01T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-11-01T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/is-a-coding-agent-a-pair-programming-partner", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/is-a-coding-agent-a-pair-programming-partner", "title": "Is a coding agent a pair programming partner? What research says", "summary": "Pair programming research found it isn't uniformly beneficial. What that meta-analysis and Anthropic's docs suggest about working with an agent.", "date_published": "2026-10-31T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-31T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/your-agent-session-history-expires", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/your-agent-session-history-expires", "title": "Your agent's session history expires: what to keep, and when", "summary": "Claude Code deletes old session transcripts after 30 days by default. Here's what that means for the record of your build, and a simple way to keep it.", "date_published": "2026-10-29T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-29T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/ironies-of-automation-and-agent-built-code", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/ironies-of-automation-and-agent-built-code", "title": "Ironies of automation: staying sharp when an agent writes the code", "summary": "Bainbridge warned in 1983 that automation can erode the skills needed to supervise it. A 2026 trial of AI-assisted coding suggests a similar worry.", "date_published": "2026-10-27T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-27T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/feeling-fast-versus-being-fast", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/feeling-fast-versus-being-fast", "title": "Feeling fast versus being fast: timing your agent-assisted work", "summary": "Developers in one trial felt faster with AI and measured slower. What that and the planning fallacy suggest about timing your own agent sessions.", "date_published": "2026-10-25T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-25T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/write-the-spec-before-the-prompt", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/write-the-spec-before-the-prompt", "title": "Writing a spec before the prompt: what the research says", "summary": "Vague requirements are an old problem, and agents don't remove it. What a requirements survey and Anthropic's docs say about writing the spec first.", "date_published": "2026-10-23T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-23T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/when-to-start-a-fresh-session", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/when-to-start-a-fresh-session", "title": "When to start a fresh session: long chats with a coding agent", "summary": "Long agent sessions get heavy. What Anthropic's own docs say about context, /clear, /compact and rewind, and a plain rule for when to start over.", "date_published": "2026-10-21T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-21T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/write-down-the-why", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/write-down-the-why", "title": "Write down the why: decision records for agent-built code", "summary": "Code shows what you chose, not why. What Nygard and Microsoft's guidance say about decision records, and a ten second habit for agent sessions.", "date_published": "2026-10-19T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-19T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/praise-is-not-evidence", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/praise-is-not-evidence", "title": "Praise is not evidence: appraising an agent's work honestly", "summary": "A confident all-done feels like proof, but it isn't. What research and vendor docs say about checking an agent's work against evidence, not tone.", "date_published": "2026-10-17T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-17T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/reading-your-own-dead-ends", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/reading-your-own-dead-ends", "title": "Reading your own dead ends: what abandoned work can teach", "summary": "Abandoned branches and rewound sessions are the part of a build nobody keeps. Here's why they're worth reading, and what the docs say about keeping them.", "date_published": "2026-10-15T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-15T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/declaring-done-before-you-start", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/declaring-done-before-you-start", "title": "Declaring done before you start: goals as a yardstick", "summary": "Decide what finished looks like before your first prompt. What Scrum and vendor docs say about done, and how to write a yardstick an agent can check.", "date_published": "2026-10-13T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-13T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/why-a-correction-is-the-most-informative-prompt", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/why-a-correction-is-the-most-informative-prompt", "title": "Why a correction is the most informative prompt in a session", "summary": "A correction tells you what you meant, what the agent assumed, and where they split. Here's what research and vendor docs say, and how to read yours.", "date_published": "2026-10-11T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-11T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] }, { "id": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/reviewing-code-you-did-not-write", "url": "https://codecartographer.dev/blog/reviewing-code-you-did-not-write", "title": "What the research says about reviewing code you didn't write", "summary": "Two studies of code review put understanding the change first. Here's what they found, and what it means when you didn't write the code.", "date_published": "2026-10-09T12:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-10-09T12:00:00Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Team Cartographer" } ] } ] }