6 ms·
What is agentic engineering?
- kevintomlee 7mo agothe practice of developing software with the assistance of coding agents. Spot on.
- CuriouslyC 7mo agoThe halo effect in action.
- allovertheworld 7mo agoStaring at your phone while waiting for your agent to prompt you again. Code monkey might actually be real this time
- deadbabe 7mo agoI think we all know what Agentic engineering is, the question is when should it not be used instead of classical engineering?
- jamiemallers 7mo ago[dead]
- righthand 7mo agoHow is this different than Prompt Engineering?
- ares623 7mo ago"Prompt" was derogatory /s
- bigfishrunning 7mo agoIt just meant they showed up on time.
- giancarlostoro 7mo agoPrompt engineering was coined before tooling like Claude Code existed, when everyone copied and pasted from chatgpt to their editor and back. Agentic coding highlights letting the model directly code on your codebase. I guess its the next level forward. I keep seeing agentic engineering more even in job postings, so I think this will be the terminology used to describe someone building software whilst letting an AI model output the code. Its not to be confused with vibe coding which is possible with coding agents.
- simonw 7mo agoPrompt engineering didn't imply coding agents. That's the big difference: we are now using tools write and execute the code, which makes for massively more useful results.
- TheSamFischer 7mo ago[dead]
- roncesvalles 7mo agoI think prompt engineering is obsolete at this point, partly because it's very hard to do better than just directly stating what you want. Asking for too much tone modification, role-playing or output structuring from LLMs very clearly degrades the quality of the output. "Prompt engineering" is a relic of the early hypothesis that how you talk to the LLM is gonna matter a lot.
- maxbond 7mo agoI don't think we should be making this distinction. We're still engaged in software engineering. This isn't a new discipline, it's a new technique. We're still using testing, requirements gathering, etc. to ensure we've produced the correct product and that the product is correct. Just with more automation.
- ssgodderidge 7mo agoI agree, partly. I feel the main goal of the term “agentic engineering” is to distinguish the new technique of software engineering from “Vibe Coding.” Many felt vibe coding insinuated you didn’t know what you were doing; that you weren’t _engineering_. In other words, “Agentic engineering” feels like the response of engineers who use AI to write code, but want to maintain the skill distinction to the pure “vibe coders.”
- zx8080 7mo ago> “Agentic engineering” feels like the response of engineers who use AI to write code, but want to maintain the skill distinction to the pure “vibe coders.” If there's such. The border is vague at most. There're "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" when working with systems. In this terms, there's no distinction between vibe-coding and agentic engineering.
- simonw 7mo agoMy definition to "vibe coding" is the one where you prompt without ever looking at the code that's being produced. The moment you start paying attention to the code it's not vibe coding any more. Update: I added that definition to the article: https://simonwillison.net/guides/agentic-engineering-patterns/what-is-agentic-engineering/changes/#change-2026-03-16-0538 https://simonwillison.net/guides/agentic-engineering-pattern...
- zx8080 7mo agoWhat if you review 50%? Or 10%? Or only 1%, is it not vibe coding yet? Where is the borderline?
- danieltanfh95 7mo agoAgentic engineering is working from documentation -> code and automating the translation process via agents. This is distinct from the waterfall process which describes the program, but not the code itself, and waterfall documentation cannot be translated directly to code. Agent plans and session have way more context and details that are not captured in waterfall due to differences in scope.
- mmastrac 7mo agoAfter three months of seeing what agentic engineering produces first-hand, I think there's going to be a pretty big correction. Not saying that AI doesn't have a place, and that models aren't getting better, but there is a seriously delusional state in this industry right now..
- iainctduncan 7mo agoAnd we haven't even started to see the security ramifications... my money is on the black hats in this race.
- kypro 7mo agoWe are starting to see them, also the bugs too. But to your point I think this year it's quite likely we'll see at least 1 or 2 major AI-related security incidents..
- iainctduncan 7mo agoMy money is on a lot more than 1 to 2!
- simonw 7mo agoI've been predicting a "challenger disaster" moment: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/8/llm-predictions-for-2026/#1-year-a-challenger-disaster-for-coding-agent-security https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/8/llm-predictions-for-202...
- AstroBen 7mo agoYes I'm with you. I spent the last 2 months heavily doing "agentic engineering" and I don't think it's optimal to work like that as a default. LLMs are for sure useful and a productivity boost but generating 99% of your code with it is way overdoing it.
- jbethune 7mo agoI think there is a meaningful distinction here. It's true that writing code has never been the sole work of a software engineer. However there is a qualitative difference between an engineer producing the code themselves and an engineer managing code generated by an LLM. When he writes there is "so much stuff" for humans to do outside of writing code I generally agree and would sum it up with one word: Accountability. Humans have to be accountable for that code in a lot of ways because ultimately accountability is something AI agents generally lack.
- nlawalker 7mo agoI think within the industry and practice there's going to be a renewed philosophical and psychological examination of exactly what accountability is over the next few years, and maybe some moral reckoning about it. What makes a human a suitable source of accountability and an AI agent an unsuitable one? What is the quantity and quality of value in a "throat to choke", a human soul who is dependent on employment for income and social stature and is motivated to keep things from going wrong by threat of termination?
- neonbrain 7mo agoThe term feels broken when adhering to standard naming conventions, such as Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering, where "Agentic Engineering" would logically refer to the engineering of agents
- ares623 7mo agoAgentic Management doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
- jfim 7mo agoThat's kind of how it feels though. I get the impression I'm micro managing various Claude code instances in multiple terminals.
- pamelafox 7mo agoI think “agent engineering” could refer to the latter, if a distinction needs to be made. I do get what you’re saying, but when I heard the term, I personally understood its meaning.
- simonw 7mo agoYeah, Armin Ronacher has been calling it "agentic coding" which does at least make it clear that it's not a general engineering thing, but specifically a code related thing.
- victorbjorklund 7mo agoLots of things already violate it. The normal Site Reliability Engineer isn’t building the tools for Site Reliability but rather applies the tools to other software.
- aewens 7mo ago“It’s not vibe coding, it’s agentic engineering” From Kai Lentit’s most recent video: https://youtu.be/xE9W9Ghe4Jk?t=260 https://youtu.be/xE9W9Ghe4Jk?t=260
- simonw 7mo agoThanks for the reminder, I should add a note about vibe coding to this piece.
- DonHopkins 7mo agoExcept for the bad advice about using VIM. Emacs FTW! I even named my cat Emacs.
- pamelafox 7mo agoI’ve been using the term “agentic coding” more often, because I am always shy to claim that our field rises to the level of the engineers that build bridges and rockets. I’m happy to use “agentic engineering” however, and if Simon coins it, it just might stick. :) Thanks for sharing your best practices, Simon!
- simonw 7mo agoI decided to go with it after z.AI used it in their GLM-5 announcement: https://z.ai/blog/glm-5 https://z.ai/blog/glm-5 - I figured if the Chinese AI labs have picked it up that's a good sign it's broken out.
- sigseg1v 7mo agoI think there are a lot of reasons to use your suggested alternative title. One example being that in a lot of countries such as Canada, it's illegal to use the title Engineer without holding a PEng designation from the countries/provinces engineering body, eg: https://www.egbc.ca/complaints-discipline/unauthorized-practice-or-title/unauthorized-practice-misuse-of-title https://www.egbc.ca/complaints-discipline/unauthorized-pract...
- jdlyga 7mo agoSure, you could argue it's like writing code that gets optimized by the compiler for whatever CPU architecture you're using. But the main difference between layers of abstraction and agentic development is the "fuzzyness" of it. It's not deterministic. It's a lot more like managing a person.
- techpression 7mo agoI mean agents as concept has been around since the 70s, we’ve added LLMs as an interface, but the concept (take input, loop over tools or other instructions, generate output) are very very old. Claude gave a spot on description a few months back, The honest framing would be: “We finally have a reasoning module flexible enough to make the old agent architectures practical for general-purpose tasks.” But that doesn’t generate VC funding or Twitter engagement, so instead we get breathless announcements about “agentic AI” as if the concept just landed from space.
- stainlu 7mo ago[flagged]
- digdugdirk 7mo agoHonestly? I've been playing with using LLMs specifically for that reason. I'm far more likely to make prototypes that I specifically intend to throw away during the development process. I try out ideas that are intended to explore some small aspect of a concept, and just ask the LLM to generate the rest of whatever scaffold is needed to verify the part that I'm interested in. Or use an LLM to generate just a roughest MVP prototype you could imagine, and start using it immediately to calibrate my initial intuition about the problem space. Eventually you get to the point where you've tried out your top 3-5 ideas for each different corner of your codebase, and you can really nail down your spec and then its off to the races building your "real" version. I have a mechanical engineering background, so I'm quite used to the concept of destructive validation testing. As soon as I made that connection while exploring a new idea via claude code, it all started feeling much more natural. Now my coding process is far more similar to my old physical product design process than I'd ever imagined it could be.
- yammosk 7mo agoI find it quite useful to work out, plan, and refine ideas with agents. An agents ability to call out approaches you haven't thought of is really powerful. I find it useful to steer their feedback and proposals to the exact constraints you have or give yourself a confidence check on if you are leaning toward a solution for the right reasons. The best is when you can test 2-3 avenues and being able to come back and evaluate the results. Normally you would commit to one and spend all your time on that approach, make an assessment it was bad enough to try something else and move on. I find agents completely flip the script on research and planning. I find I am better able to work on hard problems then ever before with these tools. I think people severely limit themselves if they are only using them at the "build it" phase.
- scosman 7mo ago> Where it breaks down is any task where you discover the requirements during implementation Often you can find these during design. Design phases felt like a waste of time when you could just start coding and find the issues as you go. Now I find it faster to do a detailed design, then hand it over to agents to code. You can front-load the hard decisions and document the plan. Sometimes the agent might discover a real technical constraint during dev, but that's rare if the plan is detailed. If so you can always update the plan, and just restart the agent from scratch. This is my (cheesily named) process: https://github.com/scosman/vibe-crafting https://github.com/scosman/vibe-crafting
- iamcreasy 7mo agoIs there any article explaining how AI tools are evolving since the release of ChatGPT? Everything upto MCP makes sense to me - but since then it feels like there is not clear definition on new AI jergons.
- ChrisArchitect 7mo agoPreviously on the guide Agentic Engineering Patterns: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47243272 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47243272
- AdieuToLogic 7mo agoThe premise is flawed: Now that we have software that can write working code ... While there are other points made which are worth consideration on their own, it is difficult to take this post seriously given the above.
- simonw 7mo agoIf you haven't seen coding agents produce working code you've not been paying attention for the past 3-12 months.
- AdieuToLogic 7mo ago> If you haven't seen coding agents produce working code you've not been paying attention for the past 3-12 months. If you believe coding agents produce working code, why was the decision below made? Amazon orders 90-day reset after code mishaps cause millions of lost orders[0] 0 - https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-tightens-code-controls-after-outages-including-one-ai-2026-3?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-tightens-code-control...
- simonw 7mo agoYou appear to be confusing "produce working code" with "exclusively produce working code".
- AdieuToLogic 7mo ago> You appear to be confusing "produce working code" with "exclusively produce working code". The confusion is not mine own. From the article cited: Dave Treadwell, Amazon's SVP of e-commerce services, told staff on Tuesday that a "trend of incidents" emerged since the third quarter of 2025, including "several major" incidents in the last few weeks, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider. At least one of those disruptions were tied to Amazon's AI coding assistant Q, while others exposed deeper issues, another internal document explained. Problems included what he described as "high blast radius changes," where software updates propagated broadly because control planes lacked suitable safeguards. (A control plane guides how data flows across a computer network). It appears to me that "Amazon's SVP of e-commerce services" desires producing working code and has identified the ramifications of not producing same.
- codance 7mo ago[dead]
- sigbottle 7mo agoThere should be more willingness to have agents loudly fail with loud TODOs rather than try and 1 shot everything. At the very least, agentic systems must have distinct coders and verifiers. Context rot is very real, and I've found with some modern prompting systems there are severe alignment failures (literally 2023 LLM RL levels of stubbing out and hacking tests just to get tests "passing"). It's kind of absurd. I would rather an agent make 10 TODO's and loudly fail than make 1 silent fallback or sloppy architectural decision or outright malicious compliance. This wouldn't work in a real company because this would devolve into office politics and drudgery. But agents don't have feelings and are excellent at synthesis. Have them generate their own (TEMPORARY) data. Agents can be spun off to do so many experiments and create so many artifacts, and furthermore, a lot more (TEMPORARY) artifacts is ripe for analysis by other agents. Is the theory, anyways. The effectively platonic view that we just need to keep specifying more and more formal requirements is not sustainable. Many top labs are already doing code review with AI because of code output.
- nclin_ 7mo agoI've discovered recently as code gets cheaper and more reliable to generate that having the LLM write code for new elements in response to particular queries, with context, is working well. Kind of like these HTML demos, but more compact and card-like. Exciting the possibilities for responsive human-readable information display and wiki-like natural language exploration as models get cheaper.
- P-MATRIX 7mo agoThe skepticism makes sense to me. The core issue isn't wrong outputs—it's that there's no standard way to see what the agent was actually doing when it produced them. Without some structured view of tool call patterns, norm deviations, behavioral drift, verification stays manual and expensive. The non-determinism problem and the observability problem feel like the same problem to me.
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- _zagj 7mo ago[flagged]
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- guard402 7mo ago[flagged]
- TheAtomic 7mo agoAgents are ? and the answer is circular, "agents run tools in a loop." And this guy knows things?! No. BS.
- simonw 7mo agoWhich definition of "agent" do you like to use? I just bulked up that section by adding a couple of extra sentences, since you're right that I didn't actually define "agent" there clearly: https://simonwillison.net/guides/agentic-engineering-patterns/what-is-agentic-engineering/changes/#change-2026-03-16-0521 https://simonwillison.net/guides/agentic-engineering-pattern...
- Aafi04 7mo agoCurious how this evolves when agents start retaining memory across projects. Feels like that could change how we think about the tool loop.
- felixsells 7mo ago[flagged]
- habinero 7mo agoMarkdown engineers try to rebrand yet again.
- aryehof 7mo agoAgentic Coding or perhaps Agentic Software Development is far more real and appropriate . Calling it engineering is better left to those wanting to impress family and peers.
- VaiPai15 7mo ago[dead]
- redhale 7mo agoAs someone who works with real licensed engineers (electrical, civil), I wish we would use the term "agentic software engineering" to describe this. Omitting "software" here betrays a very SWE-centric mindset. Agents are coming for the other engineering disciplines as well.
- nickcokas 7mo ago[dead]
- itsTyrion 7mo agovery simple answer: it's mostly marketing fluff that embodies "2 (many) wrongs make 1 right (enough)"