Dev Ecosystem

I wrote a few weeks ago about working on a base system for content websites. The idea at that stage was simply to create myself a launch pad for simple sites that I could then rapidly build using an AI-assisted workflow. It’s moved on quite a bit since then!

Taking a few steps back, my approach to web development has changed significantly over the last 24 months - I think I was perfectly positioned for the influx of AI tools as I’ve always considered myself being in the category of “knows enough to be dangerous”. With broader knowledge, I’ve led design, development and marketing teams across plenty of projects but lacked the depth of skills to go all the way on more complex builds - naturally delegating certain tasks to various colleagues with deeper skills in their chosen field. Understanding what needs to be done but not always have the right skills to actually implement it.

Now though, in my humble opinion, it’s never been a better time to be a generalist.

Instead of delegating to colleagues, I’m surrounded by AI powered tools and agents that are ready to take on just about any task. I’m a bit affronted by the term “vibe coding” as the reality is certainly a lot less “chill” if you’re doing it right. The time and energy required to properly research, spec out, write guardrails, develop agents, testing (and more!) is essential groundwork if you want a good quality outcome.

I’m finding myself well-aligned with modern AI-assisted development approaches and truly believe teams need to adapt or risk being left behind. I think Amp’s How We Work guide is a great resource and something I stumbled across during this project which validated my thinking.

So, where does that put me? At Herdl, we’ve leaned hard into this philosophy and are at the early stages of launching our new dev ecosystem. I imagine that as attitudes change this won’t be a new phenomenon. We made the objective “what would be the perfect system I’ve always wanted to build”, which was mainly inspired by past discussions with Ged (business partner), and set to work. We’ve combined a dream tech stack with over 15 years of experience and an innovative AI-native workflow - the whole team feels invigorated and excited to put this into the hands of as many clients as possible.

There’s been a couple of other factors that have fed into this decision which are worth mentioning - WordPress is a huge attack surface and it’s being relentlessly pummelled by hackers. Attacks are getting more sophisticated and high frequency, targeting WordPress core and plugins. It’s simply not sustainable.

The other side is performance - what can be achieved with more modern technologies (and the answer is a bloody fast site!).

We’ve taken the principles of AI-assisted workflows and since built out a whole new process, tokenised design system, fleet management system, block registry and core product. We’ve developed several successful test sites and are starting to roll out migrations for clients who are seeing and feeling the difference in ease of use, speed and lower costs.

I’ll be looking to write up some more details on decisions and technologies being used in the future.