Re:Scaling long-running autonomous coding
by simonw on Monday January 19, 2026 @10:26PM
(#46687594)
Almost no idea at all. Coding agents are messing with all 25+ years of my existing intuitions about what features cost to build and maintain.
Features that I'd normally never have considered building because they weren't worth the added time and complexity are now just a few well-structured prompts away.
But how much will it cost to maintain those features in the future? So far the answer appears to be a whole lot less than I would previously budget for, but I don't have any code more than a few months old that was built ~100% by coding agents, so it's way too early to judge how maintenance is going to work over a longer time period.
Features that I'd normally never have considered building because they weren't worth the added time and complexity are now just a few well-structured prompts away.
But how much will it cost to maintain those features in the future? So far the answer appears to be a whole lot less than I would previously budget for, but I don't have any code more than a few months old that was built ~100% by coding agents, so it's way too early to judge how maintenance is going to work over a longer time period.