Links

- Codecrafters (sponsor): https://tej.as/codecrafters

- Agent Experience: https://agentexperience.ax

- Arrazo: https://spec.openapis.org/arazzo/latest.html

- Netlify: https://netlify.com

- Sean on X: https://x.com/JavaSquip

- Tejas on X: https://x.com/tejaskumar_

Summary

This episode dives deep into the emerging field of Agent Experience (AX), exploring how software agents, including LLMs, will interact with the web and online services. The conversation highlights the distinction between the "human web" and the "agent web," emphasizing the need for new approaches to ensure agents can effectively understand context and execute tasks.

Key topics include contextual alignment protocols like MCP (Machine Context Protocol), and standards such as `llms.txt` and `agents.json`, alongside efforts like Arrazo, which aim to provide structured information and enable complex workflows for agents. A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the challenges of authentication for agents, moving beyond human-in-the-loop processes and complex systems like OAuth2 towards more agent-friendly, secure, and auditable solutions, possibly involving dedicated agent user identities.

The dialogue also covers practical considerations like providing data to LLMs efficiently, the importance of API accessibility for agents, and the need for businesses to adapt to this new paradigm of interaction. Finally, the conversation underscores that AX is a rapidly evolving area, transitioning from theoretical concepts to practical applications, with a strong call for community collaboration to develop best practices and robust solutions for the future of agent-driven web interactions.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

03:35 Exploring Agent Experience (AX) and Its Importance

06:23 Understanding the Role of Model Context Protocol (MCP)

09:22 The Principles of Great Agent Experience

12:24 Agent Accessibility and Its Challenges

15:34 Contextual Alignment: Enhancing Agent Interaction

18:31 Human-Centric Design in Agent Experience

21:23 The Future of AI and Agent Experiences

24:25 Improving Human Accessibility Through Agentic Experiences

27:29 Primitives of Agent Accessibility

30:22 Avoiding Human in the Loop Patterns

33:19 Authentication in an Agentic World

38:34 Navigating API Token Strategies

43:30 Contextual Alignment: The Next Frontier

55:50 Understanding Agents vs. Bots

01:00:19 Optimizing Contextual Alignment for Agents

01:14:11 Understanding Website Infrastructure and Cost Implications

01:14:37 The Role of LLMs in Web Navigation

01:17:54 Quantifying ROI in Web Technologies

01:19:43 Introduction to Arazo and Workflow Management

01:24:26 Measuring Human vs. Agent Interaction

01:30:28 The Emergence of Agent Experience (AX)

01:38:09 Five Principles of Agent Experience (AX)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Links

- CodeCrafters (partner): https://codecrafters.io/

- Santosh's website: https://santoshyadav.dev/

- Santosh on X: https://x.com/santoshyadavdev

- "My Journey to Staff Engineer" by Santosh: https://www.santoshyadav.dev/blog/2025-03-29-my-journey-to-staff-engineer/

- The Staff Engineer's Path: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-staff-engineers/9781098118723/

Previous episode with Santosh

- Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/santosh-yadav-how-open-source-changes-lives-angular/id1731855333?i=1000664702562&l=pt-BR

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1qjaz4PCxEMwUKP2IyBSBv?si=d338dd633c764939

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqlBFtg8EtU

Summary

Santhosh Yadav discusses his promotion to Staff Engineer at Celonis, contrasting it with his previous experiences of leaving jobs rather than being promoted. He emphasizes that management is a "side step" not a "step up" from an Individual Contributor (IC) role.

The conversation moves into why engineers often leave jobs after two years, the importance of finding fulfilling work, and how a colleague's comment ("planted the seed") and the book "Staff Engineer's Path" helped him pursue the promotion.

A significant portion covers Santhosh's personal health journey after a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis, which led him to prioritize health, drop conference speaking, and take up running. He shares his progress from struggling with 3km to completing a half marathon, emphasizing listening to his body, proper gear, rest, and not comparing himself to others. This inspired him to launch devswhorun.dev to motivate other developers.

Other topics include:

- The value of validation and good managers.

- Dealing with toxic work environments (advice: leave).

- Productivity while working from home.

- His podcast "This is Tech Talks" and interest in home automation.

The core message: cherish what you have and the importance of health for sustainable impact.

Chapters

00:00:00 Santosh Yadav

00:04:31 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:05:31 Career Progression and Promotion Journey

00:11:36 The Importance of Staying in One Place

00:15:21 Understanding Solonis and Its Impact

00:19:29 The Role of a Staff Engineer

00:24:29 The Value of Validation in Career Growth

00:31:31 Balancing Health and Career

00:39:44 Conclusion and Future Aspirations

00:40:39 Fitness Journey and Personal Records

00:41:31 The Impact of Niceness on Management

00:45:25 Transforming Toxicity into Calmness

00:50:25 Building Connections Beyond Work

00:52:55 The Importance of Compassion in the Workplace

00:54:39 Work from Home vs. Office Productivity

00:57:59 Exploring AI and Home Automation

01:07:37 The Evolution of Angular and Personal Health Journey

01:10:11 Health Transformation and Running a Half Marathon

01:16:38 The Journey of Personal Growth Through Running

01:20:23 Understanding the Importance of Recovery and Rest

01:22:32 Choosing the Right Gear for Running

01:25:12 Leveraging Technology for Training and Recovery

01:33:36 Community Building Through Shared Experiences

01:36:16 Transforming Personal Challenges into Community Impact

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Links

- Codecrafters (partner): https://tej.as/codecrafters

- State of Devs survey: https://stateofdevs.com/en-US

- Sacha's post on Dev.to: https://dev.to/sachagreif/how-the-devographics-surveys-are-run-2023-edition-1p6a\

- Episode with Ujjwal Sharma (TC39 Chair): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tejasq_contejas-code-ujjwal-sharma-how-javascript-activity-7185637709128884225-joHP

- Sacha on X: https://x.com/SachaGreif

- Sacha's website: https://sachagreif.com/

- Tejas on X: https://x.com/tejaskumar_

Summary

In this discussion, we talk deeply with Sacha Greif, the founder of the popular State of JS, State of CSS, State of WebDev AI, and State of Devs surveys. We understand:

1. What it takes to create a great survey

2. How to process and visualize the data

3. Interesting insights and trends from the latest surveys

Finally, we explore the biggest lessons Sacha learned from running the surveys for the past 7 years.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:06:30 Goals & Scope of the Surveys

00:09:15 Why the Surveys Resonat

00:18:11 Survey Design

00:23:20 Crafting Effective Survey Questions

00:26:19 The Open Source Stack

00:30:34 Monetization Strategy

00:34:25 Potential Future Surveys

00:36:04 Subjective Opinion vs. Objective Truth in Data

00:37:42 Handling Bias, Demographics, and Language Barriers

00:41:50 Optional Questions, Data Privacy, and Transparency

00:48:33 Addressing Criticism: Representation and Influencer Lists

00:57:20 Post-Survey: Data Analysis and Visualization

01:04:19 The Technical Infrastructure Behind the Surveys

01:08:13 Simplicity vs. Complexity in Development

01:09:20 Biggest Traffic Drivers & YouTuber Influence

01:11:08 Communicating Context and Avoiding Misinterpretation

01:13:10 Key Finding 1: Things Change Slower Than Perceived

01:15:13 Why the Disconnect Between Perception and Reality?

01:19:26 Key Finding 2: State of Web Dev AI & "Vibe Coding" Reality

01:27:48 Key Finding 3: The "Boomerang Effect"/Hype Cycle of Tools

01:35:13 How Tools Supersede Each Other (Webpack/Vite, Node/Bun)

01:42:12 How Established Tools Compete & Adapt

01:44:17 Most Important Lessons Learned Running the Surveys

01:49:46 Hope for the Surveys' Future Impact

01:52:45 Call to Action: Take the State of Devs Survey

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