17 posts found
What a large language model actually predicts
A model does not look anything up and does not decide what is true. It estimates which token comes next. Almost everythi...
Tokens, not words: how a model reads your text
Models do not see characters or words. They see tokens — and once you know how text becomes tokens, several odd behaviou...
Training, fine-tuning and prompting are three different tools
Teams reach for fine-tuning when they need context, and for prompting when they need behaviour. Knowing which problem ea...
The context window is a budget, not a memory
Bigger context windows did not give models memory. They gave you a larger envelope to fill on every single request — and...
Structured output beats parsing prose
If your code needs a value from a model, ask for JSON and validate it. Regexing an answer out of a paragraph is a bug wa...
An agent is a loop, not a personality
Strip away the branding and an agent is a small loop: call the model, run the tool it asked for, feed the result back, r...
Tool calling is an API contract the model can read
A tool definition is documentation with a schema attached. Write it for a capable colleague who has never seen your syst...
When a workflow beats an agent
If you already know the steps, do not ask a model to rediscover them on every request. A fixed pipeline with model calls...
What an AI agent can actually do with a design system
Given a real design system, a model stops inventing interfaces and starts assembling them. The difference is not the mod...
Design tokens are the interface AI needs
A token that only names a hex value has saved you nothing. A token that names a job tells a model which decision it is m...
Generating layouts that respect a grid
Generated layouts usually look almost right, and "almost" is where the eye catches. Most of the fix is stating the rules...
Prompt caching: the cheapest speedup you are not using
If every request begins with the same two thousand tokens of instructions, you are paying full price to resend them. Ord...