Software Factories, Light and Dark

This article examines the modern revival of the software factory concept, driven by advances in AI and agentic systems. It defines key components: the loop (single agent task), the harness (environment and constraints), and the factory (scaled loops with human oversight). The author contrasts 'light factories' with human judgment and 'dark factories' where agents operate autonomously, warning that losing human understanding of code leads to risks. The piece discusses the shift from writing code to designing and managing the factory itself, referencing historical context and a talk by Dex Horthy. It is a technical analysis relevant to software engineering, AI, and DevOps practices.