Carsten Munk
32.8K posts

Carsten Munk
@stskeeps
wannabe manfred macx || co-founder @directionallyai || exocortex maximalist









A year ago, I realized I couldn't keep up with all the "harness engineering protips" out there. Eg: subagents, hooks, plan mode, a lot of skills, complex tool setups, memory, best-of-N, goal, loops etc. But in retrospect, they didn't really matter. These techniques get popular on X. Everyone feels fomo and tries to use them. But a month later, a new model release does these things automatically and the best practice switches to "simplify your harness" and "let the model cook". The most durable way to work with models is to convey context they couldn't possibly have. What problem I'm trying to solve. Why it matters. Tech stack constraints. How customers will use it. Etc. And ask the model to give me options and push my thinking, so that I have a real thinking partner instead of a coding intern. The corollary, of course, is to work with the best model at all times. The simplicity is worth being two months "behind" the breathless takes on X.












