Technical Reference | AI Engineering Playbooks

A practical framework for building an AI evaluation harness that links test quality to release decisions and operational confidence. Evaluation harnesses turn subjective model quality into measurable release criteria. Combine functional, safety, latency, and cost checks into one pipeline. Block releases when critical thresholds are missed, even under delivery pressure. If your AI release decision is based on a demo, you are not releasing engineering software; you are releasing a hope strategy. A proper evaluation harness creates repeatable evidence for quality, safety, and cost trade-offs. Prerequisites Versioned prompts and model configuration. Representative test dataset by use case. CI/CD pipeline with artefact retention. Clear service-level objectives for latency and reliability. Evaluation layers 1) Functional correctness Golden set response checks. Tool invocation correctness. Schema compliance for structured outputs. 2) Safety and policy Prompt in...

A practical control checklist for securing MCP servers across identity, tool boundaries, data handling, and auditability. Treat MCP servers as privileged integration surfaces, not simple helper services. Enforce identity, scoped permissions, input validation, and full audit trails. Use a release gate that blocks deployment until critical controls are verified. MCP can accelerate agent integration, but it also expands your attack surface. If your server can read internal documents, call business APIs, or trigger workflows, it is effectively a privileged control plane. This checklist is designed for engineering teams that need to move quickly without creating avoidable security debt. Prerequisites A clear inventory of MCP tools and connected systems. A named owner for security decisions. Basic logging and metrics in place. Environment separation for development, test, and production. 12 production controls 1) Explicit trust boundary Document what the MCP server m...

Side‑by‑side look at emerging agent orchestration frameworks. Side‑by‑side look at emerging agent orchestration frameworks. Offers clarity for technical decision‑making and integration plans. Includes controls, pitfalls, and a phased implementation path. Side‑by‑side look at emerging agent orchestration frameworks. Why this matters Teams are under pressure to deliver AI capability quickly, but speed without control creates operational and governance risk. This guide focuses on practical execution patterns that hold up in production. Prerequisites Clear ownership for delivery and risk decisions. Baseline observability for model and tool behaviour. Defined quality and security acceptance criteria. Practical approach Define the business decision this capability supports. Limit the first release scope to one workflow and one owner. Add measurable controls for quality, latency, and failure handling. Roll out with explicit monitoring and rollback paths. Implemen...

How current agent architectures (tool use, multi-step reasoning, memory) are evolving into deployable systems rather than demos. How current agent architectures (tool use, multi-step reasoning, memory) are evolving into deployable systems rather than demos. Agent frameworks like OpenAI’s Evals, CrewAI, and LangGraph are changing the baseline for production AI — engineers need clarity on trade‑offs. Includes controls, pitfalls, and a phased implementation path. How current agent architectures (tool use, multi-step reasoning, memory) are evolving into deployable systems rather than demos. Why this matters Teams are under pressure to deliver AI capability quickly, but speed without control creates operational and governance risk. This guide focuses on practical execution patterns that hold up in production. Prerequisites Clear ownership for delivery and risk decisions. Baseline observability for model and tool behaviour. Defined quality and security acceptance criteri...