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The Agent Is Now a Named Coworker, and It Needs a File Format

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

The Agent Is Now a Named Coworker, and It Needs a File Format

Named, persistent agents need a file format. Open Agent Profile, Buzz, Grok Bot, and Hermes Bot Mode show why a portable...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Your Agent Should Answer the Phone: A Field Guide to AI Gateways on Slack, Discord, Telegram, Signal, and Teams

A field guide to AI gateways on Slack, Discord, Telegram, Signal, and Teams: architecture, auth, cost, and the failure m...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Graphs in AI Engineering Have Solved Three Problems. The Fourth Is the Plan.

Knowledge graphs, GraphRAG, and LangGraph solved three problems. The fourth is the work itself: a reviewable graph of bo...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

The Hidden Cost of Tiny Iceberg Commits

Trace what one tiny Iceberg commit writes, then model hourly, per-minute, and per-second cadences so streaming costs bec...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Deletion Vectors vs Position Deletes vs Equality Deletes: The Iceberg Delete Story in 2026

Position deletes, equality deletes, and deletion vectors compared from the Iceberg spec: what each writes, how readers a...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Iceberg Is Becoming a Library, Not Just a Table Format

Iceberg is turning from a JVM table format into a library other systems embed. What that shift changes for engines, cata...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Iceberg Is Escaping the JVM: Why Rust, Go, Python and C++ Implementations Matter

Rust, Go, Python, and C++ Iceberg implementations change who can write the format. Why multi-language clients matter mor...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

The Iceberg REST Catalog Compatibility Test: One Suite of Operations Every Platform Should Pass

One suite of REST catalog operations every Iceberg platform should pass. What sameness means, where implementations dive...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Iceberg REST Remote Scan Planning Changes More Than Query Performance

Remote scan planning moves Iceberg file selection into the catalog. What that changes for engines, governance, and opera...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Iceberg Row Lineage: The Feature AI and CDC Workloads Will Eventually Depend On

Iceberg row lineage gives rows a durable identity across rewrites. Why CDC pipelines and AI workloads will eventually de...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Iceberg v4's Adaptive Metadata Tree, Explained From First Principles

Iceberg v4's adaptive metadata tree, explained from first principles: why commits rewrite too much today and how the tre...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Why Iceberg v4 Is Really About Making the Cost of Change Proportional to the Change

Iceberg v4 is really about making the cost of a change proportional to the change. The principle, the current tax, and w...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

The Catalog Can Now Plan Your Iceberg Query: Inside REST Scan Planning

A mechanics walkthrough of Iceberg REST scan planning: client-side planning, remote endpoints, pagination, and where eng...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Can Seven Different Iceberg REST Catalogs Really Run the Same DuckDB Code?

Can seven Iceberg REST catalogs run the same DuckDB script? What the protocol makes portable, what still differs, and a ...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Stop Flattening Your JSON: How Iceberg Variant Changes Semi-Structured Analytics

Iceberg Variant stores JSON as navigable binary with shredding for columnar filters. Why flattening wide tables is no lo...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

What Actually Happens When Two Engines Write the Same Iceberg Table at Once?

What happens when two engines write the same Iceberg table at once: snapshot isolation, optimistic commits, conflict det...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Variant Shredding Explained: How Iceberg Gets Columnar Performance From Messy JSON

Variant shredding turns messy JSON into Parquet columns with statistics. How the layout works, how readers reassemble va...

2026-08-24 • Alex Merced

Who Actually Owns an Iceberg Table? Managed, External, and the New Vocabulary of Lakehouse Control

Managed and external Iceberg tables mean different things on every platform. Five ownership dimensions and a translation...

2026-08-19 • Alex Merced

Mastering Apache Iceberg v3 Deletion Vectors for High-Throughput Streaming Ingest

Apache Iceberg v3 deletion vectors for high-throughput streaming ingest: how bitmaps and Puffin files fix CDC write ampl...

2026-08-19 • Alex Merced

The Decoupled Data Lakehouse: Multi-Engine Freedom with Open REST Catalogs

The decoupled data lakehouse: multi-engine freedom with open REST catalogs, credential vending, and an estate that outli...

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