Engineering Rigor in the LLM Age
Bryan Cantrill, Adam Leventhal, Rain Paharia, and David Crespo of Oxide Computer Company discuss using LLMs like Claude Code and Opus 4.5 to increase engineering rigor rather than just velocity. They share specific examples of using AI to refactor the Helios kernel, build the 'iddqd' Rust map library, debug the Ghostty terminal in Zig, and manage type drift in Oxide's APIs. The group argues that rigorous documentation and strong typing are essential for effective LLM collaboration, contrasting this with the 'vibe coding' narrative.