tech
Compound Engineering Gets an Upgrade
The AI-native engineering philosophy has expanded from four steps to eight
TL;DR
- Compound engineering initially involved a loop: Brainstorm → work → review → compound → repeat.
- The process has evolved to 'Ideate → brainstorm → plan → work → review → polish → compound → repeat'.
- Human involvement is now primarily at the beginning (ideation, understanding users) and the end (reviewing design, copy, and overall feel).
- AI handles the 'work' phase, writing code, running tests, and fixing obvious issues, provided the plan and context are adequate.
- The expanded loop acknowledges that the most important human contributions are before planning and after technical review.
- The core principle that each feature should make the next one easier (compound) remains central.