Why We Built Our Own Background Agent
Z
Zach Bruggeman, Jason Quense, Rahul Sengottuvelu 8
High resonance Write Soon
This article strongly resonates and has clear angles for your perspective
Quick Take
This is a detailed technical case study of exactly the kind of AI agent system Brian would likely want to build for his own dev workflows. The implementation details around Modal sandboxes, multiplayer sessions, and multi-client interfaces align perfectly with his serverless/CDK expertise and obsession with developer productivity automation.
Relevant Domains
AI/agents/future of software work - Primary focus Engineering craft/architecture/productivity - Heavy overlap with his tech stack Side projects/automation/earning from skills - Could apply this to client work
Blog Angles
1
"Building vs. Buying AI Dev Tools: What Ramp's Agent Teaches Us"
Thesis
Your Hook
2
"The Real Cost of 'Fast' AI Agents (Hint: It's Not the Tokens)"
Thesis
Your Hook
3
"Why Your Side Project Needs Agent Multiplayer (Even If You Work Alone)"
Thesis
Your Hook
Key Quotes
~30% of all pull requests merged to our frontend and backend repos are written by Inspect
Because Inspect sessions are fast to start and effectively free to run, you can use them without rationing
When background agents are fast, they're strictly better than local: same intelligence, more power, and unlimited concurrency
It only has to work on your code
We didn't force anyone to use Inspect over their own tools. We built to people's needs, created virality loops
Tags
#ai-agents
#developer-productivity
#build-vs-buy
#serverless-infrastructure
#modal-labs
#coding-automation
#fintech-engineering