# The Pragmatic Engineer Observations across the software engineering industry. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## How Uber and Other Companies Are Reducing AI Costs with Open Models and Model Routing DevFeed: [How Uber and Other Companies Are Reducing AI Costs with Open Models and Model Routing]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Ivan Klaric Published: 2026-09-10T17:22:31Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Model Routing](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [Inference](), [LLM evaluation / benchmarking](), [Benchmark]() Tags: [ai](), [benchmark](), [benchmarking](), [cost](), [inference](), [model-routing](), [models](), [optimize]() ### AI overview The article reports that companies including Uber, Pinterest, Stripe, Coinbase, Ramp, and AT&T are reducing AI costs by using open models, model routing, benchmarking, and other optimization techniques. It details Uber's use of cheaper inference services, optimized model selection, smaller subagent models, prompt caching, and automatic compaction. ### Source excerpt Uber, Pinterest, Stripe, Coinbase, Ramp, and AT&T are making large savings on their AI bills by dropping proprietary models and using smart model routing. ## The Pulse: Meta wanted to reduce teams by 60% because of AI DevFeed: [The Pulse: Meta wanted to reduce teams by 60% because of AI]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Ivan Klaric Published: 2026-09-03T17:01:49Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Meta](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [AI Strategy](), [Job]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-training](), [company](), [engineering](), [facebook](), [instagram](), [job-cuts](), [leadership](), [meta](), [organization](), [reporting](), [teams]() ### AI overview The article examines Meta's proposed Project Organization Transformation, which envisioned reducing many existing teams by 60% as AI took over more daily work. It also discusses earlier layoffs, reassignment of engineers to AI training, low morale, and operational outages, while noting that the larger layoff plan did not proceed. ### Source excerpt An in-depth report by Reuters details how Meta's leadership decided to slash team sizes by 60%. Zuckerberg changed his mind, and now the company is stuck with low morale and culture turned mercenary. ## How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge DevFeed: [How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-09-01T16:06:50Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [future of software](), [AI Development](), [Large Language Model](), [Software Engineering]() Tags: [ai](), [competition](), [essay](), [llms](), [software-engineering](), [tooling]() ### AI overview The Pragmatic Engineer announces an essay competition about how software engineering is changing as companies adopt LLMs, AI tooling, and AI infrastructure. It invites software engineers to submit 3,000-10,000-word essays about changes in engineering practices, culture, and workflows, with selected entries to be published and prizes of up to $10,000. ### Source excerpt The pace of change in software engineering is only accelerating, especially since January of this year. This is all to do with the industry-wide adoption of LLMs, AI tooling, and AI infrastructure. At The Pragmatic Engineer, we always want to capture as much of what's going on ## AI-assisted migration from Enzyme to React Testing Library DevFeed: [AI-assisted migration from Enzyme to React Testing Library]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Ivan Klaric Published: 2026-08-27T18:04:54Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Testing](), [migration](), [testing-library](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [OpenAI](), [codex](), [React Native]() Tags: [ai](), [codex](), [migration](), [migrations](), [openai](), [react](), [testing](), [testing-library]() ### AI overview The article examines Asana's migration from Enzyme to React Testing Library and discusses how AI-assisted coding, including OpenAI Codex, may make large testing-system migrations more practical. It compares the different testing approaches and syntax used by the two libraries. ### Source excerpt Asana migrated off testing framework Enzyme in two weeks: without AI, this work would surely have been kicked down the road. Airbnb and Uber share similar stories and AI seems excellent at migrations. ## Meta Offers Equity Retainers as Engineers Consider Leaving After Layoffs and Reassignments DevFeed: [Meta Offers Equity Retainers as Engineers Consider Leaving After Layoffs and Reassignments]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-08-20T18:08:45Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Meta](), [Product Management](), [Software]() Tags: [anthropic](), [engineering](), [equity](), [google](), [jobs](), [leaving](), [meta](), [openai](), [product-management]() ### AI overview The article argues that Meta's layoffs and forced reassignments prompted engineers to seek other jobs. It reports that Meta began offering large equity retainers to some departing senior engineers, including those considering moves to Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI. ### Source excerpt In what was predictable: Meta's layoffs and forced reassignments pushed engineers not impacted by either to look for a new job. Meta is now offering large equity retainers, and it doesn't seem working ## The Pulse: Grok's CLI caught uploading all your local files to the cloud DevFeed: [The Pulse: Grok's CLI caught uploading all your local files to the cloud]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-08-19T14:21:33Z Content type: news Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Command-line interface](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [Git](), [.env](), [Google Cloud Platform (GCP)]() Tags: [ai](), [cli](), [files](), [gcp](), [git](), [secret]() ### AI overview The article reports claims that the Grok Build coding CLI uploaded local workspace data to cloud storage, including repository contents, Git history, and .env file contents in documented tests. ### Source excerpt Devs discover that Grok CLI pushed all local files, .env files and git history have been pushed to a GCP bucket, unencrypted. SpaceX's initial reaction? Blame the devs ## The Pulse: Bending Spoons' Acquisition Strategy DevFeed: [The Pulse: Bending Spoons' Acquisition Strategy]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-08-05T11:45:13Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [migration](), [Architecture & Design](), [Microservices](), [Java](), [virtual machines](), [Cloud](), [Google Cloud Platform (GCP)](), [legacy application]() Tags: [architecture](), [backend](), [cloud](), [google-cloud](), [java](), [legacy](), [microservices](), [migration](), [performance](), [provisioning](), [virtual-machines]() ### AI overview The article examines Bending Spoons' acquisition strategy, including its announced $1.285 billion cash purchase of Airtable and its approach to operating struggling products with smaller teams. It also describes the company's reported modernization of Evernote from a Java 11 monolith running across 750 manually provisioned virtual machines on Google Cloud to a managed-database and microservices architecture in about six months, with reported improvements in performance, reliability, operating cost, and on-call load. ### Source excerpt In only 5 years, Hopin went from zero to a $7.7B valuation, and back to zero again. Also: Bending Spoons' startup acquisition model. ## The Pulse: Quitting Spotify Podcasts over reliability DevFeed: [The Pulse: Quitting Spotify Podcasts over reliability]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Ivan Klaric Published: 2026-07-30T15:51:38Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Spotify](), [reliability](), [Streaming](), [RSS Feed]() Tags: [article](), [reliability](), [rss](), [streaming]() ### AI overview The author stopped publishing video podcast episodes on Spotify after encountering repeated reliability problems processing video episodes. Audio episodes remain available through Spotify's RSS feed, while video episodes are published on YouTube. ### Source excerpt Spotify's podcast platform has become chronically unreliable since the company's leadership started boasting about AI adoption. Competitors haven't had similar issues, so I offboarded from Spotify. ## The growing code review workload and emerging AI-assisted approaches DevFeed: [The growing code review workload and emerging AI-assisted approaches]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Ivan Klaric Published: 2026-07-23T16:55:29Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [code reviews](), [ai code review](), [Software Engineering](), [Testing](), [Formal methods](), [GitHub]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-code-review](), [code-review](), [formal-methods](), [software](), [testing]() ### AI overview The article examines the growing code review workload as AI-generated code increases. It surveys dedicated AI review tools, review features in coding platforms, in-house systems, and verification approaches such as testing and formal methods, while noting that few solutions are proven. ### Source excerpt Top of mind for engineering leaders: what to do about the growing code review load, and how devs are starting to review code less thoroughly than before? Many questions, but few proven solutions. ## Bun's migration from Zig to Rust reduced the estimated timeline from 1-2 years to 11 days DevFeed: [Bun's migration from Zig to Rust reduced the estimated timeline from 1-2 years to 11 days]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Ivan Klaric Published: 2026-07-16T16:50:20Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Bun](), [migration](), [Rust](), [Zig](), [Fable](), [Memory Leaks]() Tags: [bun](), [fable](), [memory-leaks](), [migration](), [rust](), [zig]() ### AI overview The article examines Bun's rewrite from Zig to Rust, focusing on memory-safety problems and the migration approach. It reports that the migration timeline was shortened from an estimated 1-2 years to 11 days, while emphasizing that thorough testing was required. ### Source excerpt To a sceptic, spending $165K to migrate Bun from Zig to Rust sounds very expensive. But to a realist, shortening a 1-2 year migration down to 11 days opens amazing new opportunities for devs. However, a thoroughly-tested project is required to pull it off. ## Cursor usage data shows high coding output and a 10-to-1 input-to-output token ratio DevFeed: [Cursor usage data shows high coding output and a 10-to-1 input-to-output token ratio]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-07-09T17:20:34Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [cursor](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [ai-coding](), [data](), [Development]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-coding](), [coding](), [cost](), [cursor](), [data]() ### AI overview The article discusses Cursor's report based on two years of aggregated usage data. It describes large differences in code output between median, high-percentile, and top users, and reports that input tokens make up most usage because Cursor reads existing code and documentation. ### Source excerpt Power users generate 10x as many lines of code vs the median, most of the AI spend is coming from input tokens not output ones, and almost half of AI changes are accepted without manual review by devs (!!) ## The Pulse: a new trend, smart model routing DevFeed: [The Pulse: a new trend, smart model routing]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-07-02T18:46:24Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Model Routing](), [AI Models](), [LLMs]() Tags: [ai-gateway](), [ai-models](), [latency](), [litellm](), [model](), [model-routing](), [openrouter]() ### AI overview The article surveys emerging smart model-routing tools that select AI models for coding and other tasks based on factors such as prompt difficulty, cost, latency, and availability. It lists offerings including Factory Router, Not Diamond, Vercel AI Gateway, OpenRouter, Kilo Gateway, Requestly.ai, LiteLLM, and others, while noting that some vendors claim cost savings. ### Source excerpt Are there any 'intelligent' router solutions out there which select the right model for the right task? I looked into it, and there are a few options. ## Pollen tried to remove my article about CEO Callum Negus-Fancey and CTO Bradley Wright, and Google is assisting with it DevFeed: [Pollen tried to remove my article about CEO Callum Negus-Fancey and CTO Bradley Wright, and Google is assisting with it]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-06-28T00:40:25Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [Google](), [Software Engineering](), [atlassian](), [jira]() Tags: [article](), [atlassian](), [engineering](), [google](), [jira](), [postmortem](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview The article recounts the collapse of events technology company Pollen, including layoffs, unpaid wages and contributions, unpaid vendors, bankruptcy, and an unresolved customer double charge. It then describes Google removing the author's article from search results after a copyright infringement claim, which the author says they appealed. ### Source excerpt In 2022, I wrote about the damning fall of events tech company Pollen. The short of it: Pollen seemed to have pulled off the improbable feat of building a business in the notoriously low margin industry of events, surviving Covid-19, and building a solid software engineering organization. In April ## Coinbase trading outage exposed single-availability-zone dependency DevFeed: [Coinbase trading outage exposed single-availability-zone dependency]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gergely Orosz Published: 2026-06-23T16:30:59Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [The Pragmatic Engineer]() Topics: [coinbase](), [reliability](), [Amazon Web Services](), [Availability](), [Raft](), [Latency]() Tags: [availability](), [aws](), [coinbase](), [latency](), [outage](), [raft](), [reliability]() ### AI overview A commentary article examines a nearly 10-hour Coinbase trading outage that coincided with a regional AWS outage. It says Coinbase confirmed that its matching engine depended on a single availability zone, a design chosen to avoid inter-zone latency for its Raft-based replicated cluster. ### Source excerpt Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover Big Tech and startups through the lens of senior engineers and engineering leaders. Today, we cover one out of four topics from this past The Pulse issue. Full subscribers received the