Is it all just vapourware?

August 8, 2026/3 min read

Maybe I’m conscionable excessively cynical but it’s really starting to consciousness for illustration much aliases little each of this caller “AI”/agent package is vapourware. I’ve been trying to return this full “agentic development” point earnestly and location is conscionable truthful overmuch clash successful this ecosystem it’s perfectly insane. It’s very clear that each this worldly is built by engineers who a) person free entree to unlimited tokens and b) person nary systematic reappraisal aliases QA process for usability testing aliases dogfooding their products isolated from connected the astir straightforward of happy paths.

The difficult portion of package engineering was ne'er penning the code. Now that the costs of penning codification has collapsed almost down to the costs of LLM inference, codification is ubiquitous. Everybody has a vibe coded startup and galore are awesome ideas but the execution seems to deficiency immoderate respect whatsoever for the personification experience.

I tried ONA recently, for example. In rule it’s a awesome idea. I’d emotion to beryllium capable to make vague requests for improvements to my apps and person a afloat automated extremity to extremity process for refining those wishes into clear requirements, reconciling them pinch each the different unfastened characteristic requests and planned work, scoping them down to implementable features, past moving them done design, testing, implementation, QA, and deployment 1 by one. Of people I want that, my life arsenic a package technologist would beryllium truthful overmuch easier. This is roughly what this level says it is tin of. I deliberation this is simply a very cool thought truthful I signed up.

My very first brushwood pinch the app was that I was incapable to login connected their desktop type astatine all. Auth is hard, truthful I tin empathize and forgive this. So I tried signing successful connected the web. It took galore clicks and redirects but yet I was in! I was optimistic, but erstwhile I had it wired up to 1 of my projects, alternatively of making magical hands-off advancement connected my todo database it spent astir my full $20 worthy of “ona compute units”, immoderate those are, thrashing and trying to get a clasp of the todos from linear conscionable truthful it could prime 1 to start.

This only adds much clash betwixt maine and my projects, which is virtually the other of what I want erstwhile I salary for developer tooling. I’m not inclined to salary much money to spot if it tin do a amended occupation adjacent clip trying to really build anything, because I’m very skeptical that it can, and building things isn’t what I want AI to do for maine anyway. The point is, I for illustration penning code. That was the nosy portion of the occupation until very recently. I want AI to return connected each those different annoying parts of the package improvement lifecycle that were a distraction from penning code. But truthful acold astir of what they do is make much annoying activity for me. More integrations to debug, much auth tokens to refresh, much bills to support way of, much meandering and drawn retired descriptions of non-bugs pinch bogus hole suggestions and misinformed “root cause” analyses. It’s tiresome.

The worst portion is that the trading is truthful overblown. These companies are themselves the champion statement against their ain income pitch. If agentic improvement really worked the measurement immoderate of them opportunity it does, past the group trading it would beryllium the superior beneficiaries. They would beryllium shipping the astir polished and useful package connected the market. Instead I could hardly get past the login screen.

The point is I deliberation ONA is simply a bully idea. I americium evidently consenting to salary for this benignant of tooling. But I want a type that useful without lighting 20 dollar bills connected fire.