Allen Helton·Jun 25PSA: That probably doesn’t need to be SaaSBefore you build the pricing page, ask yourself whether your project really needs users.A response icon1A response icon1
Allen Helton·May 27Your agent is repeating itselfSo much of agent traffic is repetitive. By adding in caching layers, you can both improve your user experience and decrease your bills in…
Allen Helton·May 14Local agents scare meI built an AI agent with its own identity, MFA, and scoped credentials. It’s still not safe. Here’s why local is the wrong place to run it.
Allen Helton·Mar 26Your AI agents are a security nightmareAI agents often run with more access than they should. Here’s how moving to session-based identity changed how I design and trust…A response icon3A response icon3
InAWS in Plain EnglishbyAllen Helton·Jan 7When serving images from S3 stopped being good enoughServing images from S3 worked for years, until it didn’t. Here’s how I moved image optimization out of my workflow and made performance the…
InLevel Up CodingbyAllen Helton·Dec 23, 2025Road to re:Invent Hackathon: How Not to Build a Serverless AppI built a deliberately overengineered serverless hackathon project with agents, event-driven choreography, and what not to do… on purpose.A response icon1A response icon1
Allen Helton·Dec 15, 2025The Real Cost of Swapping InfrastructureThe real cost of swapping infrastructure isn’t performance or price — it’s code. A look at how teams reduce risk by keeping client…
Allen Helton·Nov 24, 2025Breakthroughs are just boring improvements that pile upEngineering wins look dramatic from the outside. From the inside, they’re months of small, unglamorous changes — the kind nobody…
Allen Helton·Nov 18, 2025Cache Rebalancing Was Broken. Here’s How They Fixed It.Adding or removing cache nodes to a cluster has always been a roll of the dice. But recent improvements in Valkey 9 make it safer than…
Allen Helton·Nov 7, 2025Designing smarter caches with Valkey 9.0's numbered databasesValkey 9.0 introduces numbered databases in cluster mode — a subtle change that simplifies multi-tenant design, data isolation, and atomic…
