Blog
Agent-driven embedded development
The reference I'm building for getting AI coding agents to work on real embedded C++ — and the verification loop that makes it possible. It's organised into seven pillars; pick the one closest to what you're dealing with, or read the latest posts below.
Pillars
Reproducible / agent-ready foundation
The groundwork that makes a codebase agent-ready in the first place: containerized, reproducible builds, CI you can trust, and the context documentation an AI coding agent needs to work unsupervised.
Compile-time testing
The signature technique: pushing tests into compilation so whole classes of embedded C++ defect fail the build instead of the board. The highest-leverage feedback an agent can get.
Unit testing and mocking hardware dependencies
Breaking hardware dependencies out of the design so the logic is testable without a physical board — how to mock peripherals and buses so an agent can run the suite anywhere.
SIL harnesses and the full agent loop
Software-in-the-loop harness architecture and the capstone agent loop: build, test, mock, and simulate so an agent can iterate on real firmware without a human in the middle of every cycle.
HIL as the boundary of agent autonomy
Hardware-in-the-loop as a deliberate boundary of agent autonomy, not something to automate away — where the agent loop stops and why that line is a design decision, not a limitation.
Business positioning
Safety-critical software maturity for industrial SMEs and deep-tech hardware startups scaling into larger programs — the business case behind the engineering, written for the person funding it.
Masked case studies
Anonymized write-ups of real engagements: the problem a client had, what changed, and the cost, risk, and timeline consequences — concrete evidence rather than claims.
Latest posts
- Why Embedded Is a Better Place for AI Agents Than Web Development
Once the surrounding infrastructure is built the right way, embedded is a better fit for an AI coding agent than a typical web codebase. What "agent-ready" means, and how to get there.