Category: Software Engineering
Agent Chat using LangChain, Part 1 – Tools and Memory
There’s something really satisfying about building an AI agent that can actually take action in your application. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I integrated LangChain tools into my NestJS backend to create an agent capable of searching contacts, creating events, sending messages, and handling a bunch of other tasks. The Tech Stack…
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Combat Agents: Automating Volatility-Based Decomposition
At Don’t Panic Labs, we frequently discuss Volatility-Based Decomposition (VBD). It is an architecture practice that groups and boundaries systems by where change occurs. Instead of organizing purely by domains or technical layers, VBD identifies parts of the codebase that change together or change frequently. We use those patterns to inform seams, ownership, and stabilization…
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Building Agents with LangChain Agents
In previous posts, we have explored various ways to interact with LLMs. Today, I want to walk through creating agent_demo.py, a small but capable multi-agent application. Why is this important? Most people stop at simple prompts. But real power comes when we chain these interactions together to solve complex workflows. We aren’t just asking a…
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The Price Per Token Is Dropping. Will It Stay That Way?
LLMs are at the heart of the current AI movement. An LLM’s ability to respond to prompts with human-like responses is astonishing. All of our first interactions with ChatGPT in 2022 were amazing. The first time I used GitHub Copilot to generate a basic database access method, it was clear that something significant was about…
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From Guesswork to Structured Context: How Figma MCP Changed My Dev Workflow
Highlight: I used to rely on screenshots of Figma mockups. Now I pull structured layout and style metadata straight from the design files. When our design team shares a new mockup, they send the Figma file and link — no PNGs, no screenshots. But early on, that still meant a lot of guesswork for me….
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Building a RAG Model
It feels like everyone wants to sprinkle a little AI on every software project right now. Sometimes for good reason, and sometimes just because they want a little AI. But AI, much like a seasoning for our food, might not be an improvement. We need to know what tool to use and when. One of…
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Putting GitHub’s New AI Agent to the Test
GitHub has been on a tear recently, adding a lot of new features in a short amount of time. It’s exciting to see the platform evolve so quickly, especially with its deeper integration of AI. One of the newer features that caught my eye is Agent tasks. The core idea is that these tasks can…
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Harnessing the Hype: A Pragmatic Guide to Using AI in Development
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s another part of our development toolbox. And like any powerful tool, it can be used to build incredible things with great efficiency, or it can create a mess that is difficult to untangle. The key isn’t just using AI; it’s using it with discipline and intent….
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Beyond the Booth: How We Talk About Coaching and Growth in Engineering (and Everywhere)
What have your experiences been with conference vendor booths? When I ask myself that question, do you know what happens? My mind goes blank; they all blur together – none of them stand out. Why? (Channeling my 5-year-old daughter) In my opinion, most booths are trying to project out vs finding a way to take…
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Vectors, Python, AI, and Your Face
Building a Facial Recognition System with Cursor AI At Don’t Panic Labs, I recently embarked on an prototype project to explore the intersection of computer vision, Python, and AI-assisted development. Our goal was to build a light-weight facial recognition system that could identify faces, create a searchable database, and analyze images. All while leveraging Cursor…
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