Essays by Ry Walker

Essays on AI, startups, and software engineering by Ry Walker, founder of Tembo and Astronomer.

allagentsaiapisarchitectureastronomerautomationbottleneckbuild-vs-buybusiness-modelcode-reviewcoding-agentscommunicationcompetitioncontextcontext-engineeringcoordinationculturecustomer-developmentcustomer-successdatadecision-makingdeveloper-experiencedeveloper-toolsdevexeconomicsengineeringenterpriseevaluationexperiencefoundersfundraisingfuturego-to-marketgovernancegrowthgtmhuman-in-the-loopincentivesinfrastructureintegrationintuitionjudgmentknowledge-managementknowledge-workkubernetesleadershiplearningmaintenancemanagementmarketmarketingmeasurementmemorymoatsnuanceobservabilityopen-sourceoperationalizationoperationsoutboundpersonalpersonal-agentspersonalizationphasespitchingplatformplatformsplaybookprocessprocurementproductprototypingqualityragreasoningrecommendationsretentionreviewsalessecurityseedshippingskillssoftware-engineeringstartupsstorytellingstrategytembotoolingtrustunit-economicsworkflow
Apr 22, 2026Why Sandboxes Beat Vector RAG for Code Generation

Vector retrieval gives a similarity approximation of context. A sandbox gives the agent the real repository. Stateless, disposable, accurate — the architecture that actually works.