Skip to content
Antoine Debes.

Writing

Decisions, not tutorials.

9 short essays on back-end, data, AI and leading senior teams, grouped by the areas of the map.

RSS feed

1 essay

Back-end

Services and APIs that stay boring under load, so the team can ship fast on top of them.

On the map: Back-end

  1. Boring Infrastructure Is What Makes Speed Safe

    The backend foundations I put in place so a team, and the AI agents in its repositories, can ship quickly without breaking what already works.

    Back-endInfrastructure3 min

1 essay

Databases

Schemas that survive their second year and queries that stay fast as the data grows.

On the map: Databases

  1. Schemas That Survive Their Second Year

    The database decisions I make early so the schema still fits after the product has changed twice: model the business, let constraints do the policing, migrate without downtime, and give indexes a budget.

    DatabasesBack-end3 min

1 essay

Data & analytics

From raw events to numbers people act on: pipelines, models and dashboards that are trusted.

On the map: Data & analytics

  1. Data Platforms Teams Actually Trust

    How I set up tracking, pipelines and dashboards so the numbers survive the first argument: a tracking plan treated as a contract, one definition per metric, and pipelines that fail loudly.

    DataAnalytics3 min

1 essay

Cloud & DevOps

Infrastructure as the quiet part: deploys that are routine and rollbacks that are instant.

On the map: Cloud & DevOps

  1. Boring Infrastructure Is What Makes Speed Safe

    The backend foundations I put in place so a team, and the AI agents in its repositories, can ship quickly without breaking what already works.

    Back-endInfrastructure3 min

3 essays

AI & automation

AI inside real workflows, with schemas, review queues and a human gate on everything that ships.

On the map: AI & automation

  1. AI Business Automation That Holds Up in Production

    The model makes one judgment call inside a workflow it doesn't control. Schemas, review queues, evals and an audit trail do the rest.

    AIAutomation3 min

  2. How I Set Up AI for Coding and QA

    The machinery behind an agentic delivery pipeline: what the agents read, what they can touch, what never reaches them, and what QA checks.

    AIAutomation3 min

  3. Reviewing AI Pull Requests: The Human Gate

    How I review agent-authored pull requests: CI reads first, changes stay small, and a person asks what the model cannot see.

    AICode review3 min

2 essays

Front-end

Fast, secure and still immersive: 3D and motion that earn their place on a mid-range phone.

On the map: Front-end

  1. Immersive, Fast and Secure: You Don't Have to Pick Two

    How I deliver 3D-rich websites that load fast on a mid-range phone and run under a strict security policy, with AI in the workflow and the bar unchanged.

    Front-end3D3 min

  2. Immersive Front Ends Without the Jank

    3D and SVG can make an interface memorable without making it slow. When a scene earns its place, and the rules that keep it fast on a real phone.

    Front-end3D3 min

1 essay

Team leadership

Ten senior engineers, one bar: planning that keeps scope honest and reviews that keep quality up.

On the map: Team leadership

  1. How I Plan With a Team of Ten Senior Engineers

    Shape the problem, slice work for review, never let new scope in for free. How I plan now that implementation is no longer the bottleneck.

    PlanningLeadership3 min