Opinionated notes from an internal Zalando unconference on agentic engineering. Covers three themes: documentation and knowledge bases in an AI era, why ROI matters once tokens carry real cost, and agentic practices across the SDLC with code review at the centre. Closes on whether these are AI problems at all, or old software engineering problems resurfacing.

Some opinionated etiquettes for AI-assisted code generation, inspired by the Boy Scout Rule. Covers writing human-readable code in hybrid codebases, reviewing AI-generated code and PR descriptions, acknowledging AI in commit messages, maintaining project steering rules, avoiding test manipulation, structuring code review feedback across linters, AI agents, and humans, and evaluating AI-introduced dependencies. Based on hands-on experimentation with agentic engineering workflows, not research data.

Covers the limitations of vibe coding with Claude Code for production-grade work — context window constraints, ad-hoc design, and prompt-as-context friction — and how spec driven development with Kiro addresses them. Walks through Kiro’s three-document workflow (requirements, design, tasks) using a real Cloudflare R2 migration as a worked example. Discusses repository structure, where Kiro excels, and common pitfalls to avoid.

A walkthrough of migrating a personal blog from Medium to a Hugo-based static site hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Covers the reasons for leaving Medium — ads, poor code highlighting, and Markdown friction — and how the full migration was completed in under 90 minutes.

Ten categories of non-technical work that Staff and Principal Engineers frequently take on, drawn from personal experience and peer observations. Covers interviewing and promotion panels, networking patterns, onboarding, budget involvement, knowledge sharing, community building, mental health advocacy, and establishing credibility — aimed at raising awareness rather than prescribing a complete framework.