DevToolsDigest: Issue #325
This week's digest includes news and resources from Aserto, Val Town, and more.
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The Week in Developer Tools
What We Learned Copying All the Best Code Assistants
"When we launched in 2022, the state-of-the-art was GitHub Copilot. But then it was Claude Artifacts, and now Bolt, Cursor, and Windsurf. Looking back over 2024, our efforts have mostly been a series of fast-follows, copying the innovation of others. This article is a historical account of our efforts, giving credit where it is due."
On AI Agents Using Browsers and Use Cases in Compliance
"In recent months, both Anthropic and OpenAI have shown how an AI agent can independently use a web browser to interact with the Internet. I am optimistic in having agents use the browser to enable new use cases, and want to share some thoughts and observations based on my recent learnings in this area."
Centralized vs Distributed Authorization
Even when authorization is treated as a centrally managed platform, there are architectural considerations for whether the authorizer runs centrally or in a distributed fashion, and where the data used for authorization resides. Explore the deployment patterns for authorization systems, the tradeoffs between them, and an attractive middle ground.
Industry Research
The Collision of Product Management and Product Ownership (2019)
Product Management and Product Ownership, a topic of hot debate in the agile and product circles but with very few answers. Many have attempted to define the difference between these two roles (if any) — are they one role, two roles? Are they different, the same but different?? The answer is often unclear.
Open Source is Not Altruism
Many of my peers mistakenly believe that open source is driven by altruism, volunteerism, and charitable giving. Open source, after all, descends from the free software movement. However, the traditional narrative of individual programmers donating their time and expertise for the greater good no longer captures the reality of today's open source ecosystem.
Developer Venture News
Clay Achieves Unicorn Status with $57.5M Raise
Clay claims its platform combines more than 100 integrations and AI agents to help teams find data, from contact information to intent signals, and instantly apply that data across a team’s entire tech stack, from customer relationship managers to data warehouses to email sequencers. Clay says its roughly 100-person team is serving more than 5,000 customers, including software and AI giants like OpenAI, Canva, Anthropic, Ramp, and Rippling.