Fragments: July 6

This article by Martin Fowler summarizes key takeaways from Thoughtworks' second Future of Software Development Retreat in Europe. It highlights the shift from aspirational discussions about agentic development to real-world production use, with attendees now shipping agentic systems. The article explores emerging patterns and practices, the importance of architecture and design in the age of AI agents, and new concerns like token costs and harness engineering. It reflects on how the debate has moved from whether AI changes software engineering to how it does, emphasizing the need for good modularity and naming to benefit both humans and AI agents.