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Field notes on intent-oriented development: gating AI-written code against intent with verify-diff, cross-language conformance, spec-driven workflows, requirements as code, and intent drift.

ai-engineering

What Is Intent-Driven Development, and Why Prompts Alone Cannot Replace a Spec

Prompts describe what you want once. A spec keeps describing it as the codebase changes. The distinction that matters as AI writes more of the code.

6 min read · 2026-08-10
ai-engineering

The Spec Versioning Gap: Why AI Agents Silently Inherit Stale Intent

When specs evolve but agents aren't told, code diverges from intent without a single failed test. Here's why versioned intent contracts matter.

6 min read · 2026-08-08
ai-engineering

DeepSWE Scores High on SWE-Bench. That Tells You Nothing About Whether the Code Matches Your Spec.

DeepSWE tops leaderboards, but pass rate benchmarks can't detect intent drift. Here's what verified conformance actually requires.

6 min read · 2026-08-06
ai-engineering

Your Spec Is the Only Audit Trail That Doesn't Lie

Code comments drift, tickets close, and commit messages decay. Here's why your machine-verifiable spec is the only honest record of intent your team has.

6 min read · 2026-08-04
ai-engineering

DeepSWE Tops the Leaderboard, But Does It Verify Anything That Actually Matters?

DeepSWE scores 59% on SWE-bench, but benchmark pass rates say nothing about whether AI code matches declared intent. Here's the gap that matters.

6 min read · 2026-08-02
ai-engineering

When You Mythologize AI Agents, Your Specs Become Wishes: Operating Intent-Driven Systems Clearly

Treating AI agents as autonomous minds undermines spec-driven development. Here's how to write machine-verifiable contracts that survive the mythology.

6 min read · 2026-07-31
ai-engineering

DeepSWE Gets Benchmarks Wrong: Why Pass Rate on Tasks Is Not the Same as Conformance to Intent

DeepSWE measures if AI agents fix bugs. ThunderLang asks a harder question: did the agent honor the declared intent? Here's why that gap matters.

7 min read · 2026-07-29
ai-engineering

Spec Rot: Why Your Intent Document Expires Before Your Code Does

Spec rot is the quiet divergence between what you meant to build and what AI agents actually built. Here's how to detect and stop it.

6 min read · 2026-07-27
ai-engineering

Why SWE-Bench Scores Tell You Nothing About Whether AI Code Matches Your Spec

DeepSWE tops SWE-Bench, but benchmark scores ignore intent conformance. Here's what actually matters when AI agents write production code.

6 min read · 2026-07-25
ai-engineering

Refactoring Shared Code With AI Breaks Contracts You Forgot You Made

AI agents refactor confidently across shared modules, but cross-service behavioral contracts have no voice. Here's why that silence is the real risk.

7 min read · 2026-07-23