Generative AI coding demands what we've always known: modularity, clear boundaries, disposable components. Principles that scaled human teams are now table stakes. Here, we make the implicit explicit
by Chad Fowler @chadfowler.com
Production used to be the place where software went to fail. Observability made it the place where software becomes legible.
April 20, 2026
The architecture of a regenerative system is defined entirely by what you can't delete.
April 13, 2026
Trying to find the best tool or platform for generative software in 2026 is a mistake that could haunt you for decades
April 07, 2026
Here’s a scene every working programmer has lived.
March 26, 2026
For a long time we’ve treated frameworks as the target of software development. But if systems are meant to be regenerated and replaced safely, the real compilation target has to be the architecture itself.
March 06, 2026
In 2014 I gave a talk called Tiny (keep things small enough to understand) In 2026, small means something different. Small means safe to delete. New in the Phoenix Architecture series: The Regenerative GrainI
February 19, 2026
The “AI software factory” metaphor is seductive.
February 11, 2026
Here’s a simple test you can apply to any software system you work on:
January 23, 2026
Why the user interface is the last to become regenerative
January 21, 2026
When code can be thrown away and recreated, the unit of change is no longer lines of code. It’s reasons. Version control has to follow.
January 12, 2026
Single-developer capability isn’t a productivity story. It’s the test that tells you whether your architecture is worth keeping.
January 07, 2026
The Discipline That Looks Like Recklessness
January 06, 2026
Why Regeneration Does Not Mean Starting Over
January 05, 2026
As I mentioned in a previous post, at Wunderlist, we had a rule: any new service had to be "this big", a constraint I'd demonstrate by holding my fingers a few inches apart. The metric wasn't about lines of code. It was about replaceability.
January 02, 2026
Why "Never Upgrade in Place" Now Applies to Software
December 30, 2025
Why behavior outlives implementations
December 29, 2025
Better shapes beat better prompts
December 28, 2025
Why smaller codebases win in the AI era
December 27, 2025
Why AI makes the hidden economics of software unavoidable
December 24, 2025
Not all software should change at the same speed.
December 23, 2025
Programming didn't die all at once. There was no single moment, no dramatic obsolescence event. Instead, something quieter happened: the core constraint that shaped software for seventy years dissolved. Writing code stopped being the hard part.
December 22, 2025
Software is entering a strange new phase.
December 21, 2025