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Chris Armstrong

@chrisarmstrong.link
1.1K followers 490 following 996 posts

Software developer. Javascript/TypeScript, AWS. OCaml my camel. other tech stuff. 🇦🇺 🏳️‍🌈 Blog: www.chrisarmstrong.dev

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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 11h
I’m going with the critique of pure reason
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 10/09/2026
It’s weird trying to bridge GObject stuff to OCaml in a type safe way. Some interfaces clearly describe non-nullish behaviour, but they’re specified using types that can be nullish underneath, so my code generator ends up throwing a runtime exception instead.
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 08/09/2026
I have to admit, I have zero excitement about this latest flurry of new model releases I am sure they are all better, but the existing ones were more than good enough, and I'm learning how much to trust those existing ones... and already they do more than I can utilize them (for writing code)
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 04/09/2026
I think the taste thing with LLMs is literally just that: they’re very good at producing prose but not necessarily in a way that’s going to hold the interest of humans, especially when persuasion (and not expertise) is 80% of the job
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 04/09/2026
There was a good point about increased automation from Azu killing organisations ability to teach the skills needed for safety critical systems on HN this morning, but it ironically disappeared because the article was clearly slop 🤣
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 03/09/2026
I didn’t know there was an aftermarket for these things wine.qantas.com/p/mixed-bran...
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 03/09/2026
Comments considered harmful www.chrisarmstrong.dev/posts/commen...
chrisarmstrong.dev
Comments Considered Harmful
Coding agents are quick to synthesise comments from context, but bad at reading and maintaining them, which makes every comment a mine waiting for the next agent to trip.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 02/09/2026
AI has “dematerialised” the web by abstracting it through a chat machine so that our experience of it is via the words of a robot.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 31/08/2026
I thought initially the Globe and Mail must have been Canada’s answer to the Onion, or like the Betoota Advocate www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/ma...
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 31/08/2026
This repo might be interesting to anyone trying to build agents with ocaml. I’d like to get it into a better state, finish off the demo cli branch and get it merged, but time constraints 😤 I’m not the first to build something like this, so take it with a grain of salt github.com/chris-armstr...
github.com
GitHub - chris-armstrong/pera: Agentic libraries and coding agent demo in OCaml
Agentic libraries and coding agent demo in OCaml. Contribute to chris-armstrong/pera development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 27/08/2026
I’m increasingly convinced that complicated, unpredictable type systems like TypeScript are a dead end. I’m watching a sub-10k file codebase choke the new tsgo compiler on a 16gb system.
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
great way to put it: not just different friction but new friction you could never have encountered before. a new developer can see architectural ideas play out over an entire application in hours instead of years. they can hone their judgment on big decisions no one would have ever let them make
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 24/08/2026
The blog version, if you must www.chrisarmstrong.dev/posts/ai-ope...
chrisarmstrong.dev
AI operations is a mirage
AIs are remarkably good at putting together code, but the same problems can 10x the wreckage of your environment when applied to operations because production doesn't have the same guardrails.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 24/08/2026
Speaking of - why an AI SRE incident manager is perhaps not a real thing yet surfingcomplexity.blog/2026/02/14/l...
surfingcomplexity.blog
Lots of AI SRE, no AI incident management
With the value of AI coding tools now firmly established in the software industry, the next frontier is AI SRE tools. There are a number of AI SRE vendors. In some cases, vendors are adding AI SRE …
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 24/08/2026
I’m fairly bullish on AI coding, but my god are we so far from any kind of AI operations
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 20/08/2026
There’s a war memorial in my town to “The glorious dead” that made me think about their ubiquity, and when combined with the intense interest and paegentry on Anzac Day (a campaign Australia lost, badly) makes it seem like a huge ancestor worship cult rivalled only by Easter Island
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 18/08/2026
AI has fundamentally messed up the signals that is used to allocate capital. So much money and resources will be wasted on failed new ventures, and reallocations will rot out the inside of so many organisations that would have done better to do nothing.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 18/08/2026
I’m constantly repeating that AI is causing the return of the occult, but I didn’t have “tarot reading with the assistance of AI interpretation” on my 2026 bingo card.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 15/08/2026
Is this the miserable future we’re condemned to?
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 15/08/2026
I think I’ve been a bit brain poisoned by the menswear guy because I tend to notice when other men make an effort Today I saw a guy wearing a button up raincoat that seemed rather stylish and looked down to see … tassel loafers … and now I can’t get the words “flasher jacket” out of my head 🤦‍♂️
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 14/08/2026
Central station clocktower is ominously close to my work building, like a really shitty Big Ben
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 14/08/2026
Extremely unhappy that “cyber “ has become the lingo for anything security or hacking
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 14/08/2026
This is really screwing the pooch: if patients can claim that doctors notes have mistakes because of AI hallucinations, they’re going to be worthless to insurers trying to use them to deny claims www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
Doctor forced to apologise after AI makes 'scary' error about illegal drugs
Artificial Intelligence is listening to many people's medical appointments, but it is not always hearing things correctly.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 13/08/2026
We’re entering a new renaissance age of mysticism with AIs , we’ve never had the ability to synthesise unrelated esoterica on this scale before
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 13/08/2026
I wonder if startups are a way to speed software development because they are a market mechanism for forgetting
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 12/08/2026
At my last workplace, we used DynamoDB exclusively, and the one pain point that everyone complained about was backfills/migrations (usually suggesting we should have used a SQL database). Well, I’m now bringing myself up to speed on Postgres migrations, and what hell is this?
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 10/08/2026
I was today years old when I learned that kaiser is literally how caesar is meant to be pronounced because the c is a hard k sound in latin
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
Jared Forsyth @jaredforsyth.com · 08/08/2026
did anyone else play a ton of blobby volley as a kid? So it turns out the source is GPL 😁 been adding a ton of fun stuff to it (after porting to rust, ofc)
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 06/08/2026
I mean, this has already happened to me. I frequently use Claude for planning or research or to verify the output of a cheap model, while still using cheap models for implementation and a large amount of planning because no sub gives a reliable expensive and reliably cheap model
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
sesbian lex fridman @vala.wtf · 14/07/2026
the claude dining experience
There is a Claude sitting at a table at the Full Picture Restaurant, with another Claude attending to him. The Claude at the table (with teeth) is wearing a belt and suspenders (with intentional seams). The Claude waiter is wearing a red tie and blue blazer.

On the table are two shakers of coarse-grained salt and freshly ground truth. There is also a plate of spaghetti ("substrate") with load-bearing sauce, flanked by a genuine fork and a knife with a genuinely sharp point.

In addition to the main course, there are two sides (and it's worth separating them): a charcuterie board, and a salad (all green). There's also a glass of water with a slice of lemon (that's the wedge).

The waiter is holding a block of parmesan and a grater above the spaghetti, and saying "Just say the word."
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 26/07/2026
Pass keys are one of those necessary, but uninteresting features, a compliance tickbox on a product manager’s todolist. They’re not going to waste time explaining what it is when they have shinier things to worry about 🙃
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 25/07/2026
This is hitting at a time when whatever remaining queer spaces are being ejected from social media, which they rely on to reach the community, exacerbating fragmentation www.starobserver.com.au/news/more-au...
starobserver.com.au
More Australian LGBTQIA+ Social Media Accounts Shut Down By Meta
More Australian LGBTQIA+ venues have lost access to their social media accounts, raising concerns about Meta’s treatment of queer businesses
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 25/07/2026
The biggest tragedy of the success of Rupaul is the mainstream emergence of queer branding, rather than things that are simply queer in themselves.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 18/07/2026
Bumming around the UK for a week or two
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 18/07/2026
Tormenting other Commander players with a squirrel proliferation deck I am too incompetent to use effectively
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 17/07/2026
They only have Lavazza 🤦‍♂️
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 16/07/2026
Amsterdam is charming (despite being one of the tourist hoards)
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 16/07/2026
I’m very bullish on the use of LLMs to harden and improve existing software, as opposed to creating new software. Their ability to extrapolate existing practice means they are very good for things already architected well, instead of things where the developers already delegated their thought.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 10/07/2026
I was kind of hoping this was about the Egyptian god
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
Giacomo Cavalieri @giacomocavalieri.me · 08/07/2026
Almost done!!! Those are gonna be the hardest 18 tests to fix of my life
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 08/07/2026
I’ve been trying to update smaws to support new protocol versions, and the difference between LLMs this time last year and this year is night and day. I’m fairly confident I’ll be able to knock out support for most of the AWS protocols in a relatively short time instead of months.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 08/07/2026
ocgtk 0.1-preview 2 is now available on opam. This preview adds signals support, along with a number of other types, making the API surface substantially complete. Notably, supported OCaml versions now extends back to the version 4 series (and on Windows!) discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-ocgtk-...
discuss.ocaml.org
[ANN] ocgtk 0.1: OCaml bindings for GTK 4 (preview release)
ocgtk 0.1-preview2 is now available on opam This release significantly increases the amount of generated functionality, covering the vast majority of classes snd methods available in it’s generated l...
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
we‘re bringing back cybernetics!
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 03/07/2026
The way you’ve been using open style online social networks for too long that you tell when someone is going through the ideological destabilisation process 😢
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 03/07/2026
Alas, my frustration with regular agentic coding harnesses has led me to build my own.
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 01/07/2026
Fable is back!
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 29/06/2026
Am I the only one that spends multiple rounds deslopping PRs to my own side projects that literally no one else is using?
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Chris Armstrong @chrisarmstrong.link · 25/06/2026
The bush turkey clucking pensively, awkwardly sitting on the fence, while my dog wandered around oblivious below was definitely the more amusing part of my morning.
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
Armin Ronacher @mitsuhiko.at · 23/06/2026
Some more thoughts on looping in coding agents. lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/6/23/th...
lucumr.pocoo.org
The Coming Loop
Loops, harnesses, and why even loop skeptics may end up with them.
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Reposted by Chris Armstrong
Bramus @bram.us · 19/06/2026
PSA: Features available behind a feature flag have not shipped. (The thread had some more examples and words)
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