Slack Insights

A thread warning about the dangerous 'Shai-Hulud 2.0' npm compromise that can destroy home directories, with community members sharing detection tools, affected repositories, and preventative measures like GitHub policies and security tools.

Announcement of the upcoming CTO Summit 2025 featuring high-profile speakers like Bjarne Stroustrup and Charity Majors, with program highlights and connection to code.talks event.

A resource-sharing thread featuring detailed summaries of 50+ AI companies and their products, providing a valuable overview of the current AI application landscape based on an a16z report.

A tech leader considering migrating from Slack to Microsoft Teams due to price increases receives strong cautionary feedback from peers who experienced significant collaboration and productivity losses after making similar transitions.

Announcement of a Masterclass by Vercel's Mark Knichel on strategies to improve developer velocity in large organizations, covering incremental builds, microfrontends, and practical approaches to common development bottlenecks.

Announcement of a focused 60-minute online session for tech leaders to exchange current practices, failures, and working patterns around applied AI in engineering and product teams, with strong community interest shown through 65 positive reactions.

A SaaS startup leader seeks advice on implementing structured compensation with salary bands before Series A funding, receiving recommendations for comprehensive resources including a masterclass recording, slides, and a public template.

The discussion explores how AI is transforming software development from merely assisting with code completion to generating entire components, with participants sharing experiences, challenges, and strategies for effectively integrating AI into production workflows.

Announcement of an upcoming masterclass on AI-Powered Observability that will teach CTOs and Architects how to predict and prevent system failures in modern distributed environments, with strong community interest shown through 31 positive reactions.

A tech leader shares their experience with North Korean scammers using LLMs during job interviews, prompting community members to share similar encounters and detection strategies.

A tech leader shares their positive experience with NVIDIA's small Parakeet speech-to-text model, highlighting its ability to be fine-tuned for domain-specific terminology in just two hours while running efficiently on modest hardware.

A developer shares JMux, a Python package for streaming structured JSON from LLMs that improved their app's response time from 20s to 4s, with community members discussing similar tools like BAML and Instructor.

A tech leader seeks frameworks to present AI adoption/maturity across their organization to board members, covering various use cases, industry benchmarking, and business impact, with community members offering survey tools and discussing the challenge of realistic AI representation amid hype.

Discussion on approaches to implementing LLMs with highly sensitive health data while maintaining strict data protection standards, weighing options between self-hosting and using certified providers like Stackit.

Tech leaders discuss their experiences using AI tools like Claude, Phoebe, and custom solutions to automate DevOps and on-call tasks across multiple tech stacks.

A tech leader seeks insights on migrating from Asana to Linear, receiving positive feedback from someone who successfully transitioned from Jira to Linear with excellent adoption and minimal customization needs.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for agentic workflow solutions that automate E2E test creation from PRDs or Gherkin stories, receiving suggestions ranging from AI tools like Cursor and Claude Code to specialized testing platforms like Checksum.ai and Stagehand.

The community reached and celebrated the significant milestone of 1000 members, generating enthusiastic reactions from numerous participants.

A CPTO shares their frustration with being pulled away from technical work into business operations for over a year, until meeting two inspiring new leaders who want to help them return to tech-focused responsibilities.

A community member shares their Kali Linux Docker container with Claude integration that excels at security testing and AI red teaming tasks, demonstrating impressive performance on OWASP GenAI CTF challenges.

The thread explores strategies for keeping technical teams engaged with rapidly evolving AI tools and practices, with participants sharing challenges of 'AI fatigue' and approaches like dedicated AI ambassadors, structured learning sessions, and deliberate learning cycles.

A community member seeks recommendations for AI companies that can help the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) with staff planning optimization, receiving two viable connections that were passed along to the requester.

Multiple tech leaders share their disappointment with Gemini 3, citing over-engineering of simple tasks, with most preferring alternatives like Claude or Sonnet-2.5, though it shows some promise for UI components and code reviews.

Discussion seeking recommendations for a web-based chat interface that supports sub-agents to handle large health database query results via MCP integration, with several solutions suggested including Airweave, Google's ADK, sub-agents-mcp, Copilotkit, and MCPUI.

A tech leader in the energy sector seeks recommendations for EU-based managed Kubernetes providers that meet strict data protection, stability, and auditability requirements, receiving feedback on OTC, OVH, IONOS, and other providers along with ISO 27001 certification experiences.

A tech leader seeks advice on reducing OpenAI API costs for their student learning companion product, receiving suggestions including local LLMs, routing solutions like flowiseai and airouter.io, and data format optimizations.

A tech leader seeks feedback on using Asana as a unified project management tool for software development teams, receiving mixed reviews and several recommendations for Linear as a more developer-friendly alternative.

A tech leader expresses shock at SonarQube's 3x price increase for their code analysis needs and seeks community input on more cost-effective alternatives like Aikido, LinearB, and Cursor Bugbot.

Tech leaders discuss a significant Cloudflare outage affecting multiple services including OpenAI, sharing real-time status updates, alternative providers, and ultimately the root cause explanation involving a configuration file issue.

A tech leader shares their frustrating experience with DataDog's subscription cancellation process, including hidden termination procedures, extended billing without service access, and strategic timing to maximize charges.

A request for recommendations on affordable workshops and coaches for first-time people leaders in an early-stage startup context received multiple suggestions including digital tools, personal coaches, books, and workshop programs.

Discussion on implementing Windows executable code signing in CI/CD pipelines, covering certificate options, physical security devices, and automation approaches with a practical code example.

A tech leader shares Google's new computer use model for browser automation, noting they're already achieving good results with local Phi-4 models and Stagehand, while another member recommends Director.ai for natural language web automations.

A humorous late-night coding project proposing to 'solve' microservices by letting LLMs handle everything sparked amusement and playful discussion about the absurdity of modern tech stacks.

Community members share and discuss news about OpenAI's forthcoming agent builder platform that appears to offer integrated workflow capabilities similar to n8n/make.

The thread discusses options for implementing a customer support voice bot for German-speaking customers with strict EU data residency requirements, with participants suggesting specific providers like lautmaler.de and yoummday.

Discussion questioning Germany's digital sovereignty tech stack that paradoxically includes US-based technologies like GitHub Actions, Angular, and React despite requirements for replaceability with manageable effort.

Discussion about the feasibility of building reusable plugins across different e-commerce platforms, with insights on implementation differences and existing connector solutions.

A community member is promoting a free workshop on Kubernetes and GitOps using OpenTelekomCloud as a sovereign alternative to US hyperscaler clouds, with other members expressing surprise at finding fellow OTC users.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for AI generation tools beyond Gemini Pro and Sora for creating YouTube ads, receiving suggestions for Heygen and Synthesia along with advice on proper prompt structuring.

Community members share their experiences with Cursor 2.0's new agent-first UX and proprietary Composer 1 model, highlighting its impressive speed while noting areas for improvement in code quality and browser integration.

A user shares the Verbalized Sampling technique that improves AI model diversity by adding '... and corresponding probabilities' to prompts, with research showing 1.6-2.1x better diversity over direct prompting.

Community members share a resource about DGX Spark setup issues and discuss alternative hardware choices like the Blackwell RTX6000, with one member beginning their DGX journey and promising to report findings.

A tech leader explores implementing Google Gemini Enterprise as the company-wide AI chat solution for non-technical staff, with community members confirming SSO integration capabilities, data protection agreements, and offering implementation support.

A tech leader shares their experience using GitHub Spec Kit with Claude for spec-driven development, highlighting improved output quality and documentation but noting challenges with output volume and token costs.

Tech leaders discuss security concerns around 1Password's new 'agentic autofill' feature that allows AI agents to use credentials in virtual browser sessions, with participants expressing skepticism about credential security and control.

Discussion exploring the technical feasibility and business implications of using real-time bank transfers instead of traditional payment providers to avoid the typical ~3% transaction fees.

A tech leader seeks to compare notes on GitLab pricing for 100-200 users (Premium vs Ultimate tiers), receiving feedback from peers about their experiences with GitLab pricing, alternatives, and considerations between self-managed and cloud options.

A community member is announcing that two fellow members are presenting at code.talks at 3PM on Stage 3 and is asking who else will attend the session.

A discussion sparked by an article questioning cloud cost-effectiveness, with a response highlighting the importance of implementing guardrails and cost monitoring to prevent runaway cloud expenses.

A discussion seeking privacy-focused alternatives to Crashlytics/Firebase for a secure recorder app, with community members recommending self-hosted Sentry and PostHog as viable options.

A tech leader seeks external review of their Data Mesh implementation plan for a platform with 25 engineers and 10 data team members managing multiple web applications on AWS.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for tools that consolidate infrastructure costs from multiple providers (AWS, Azure, etc.) into a single dashboard, receiving suggestions for Vantage.sh and DataDog's cost integration features.

Jakob requests brief interviews with community members to gather insights for his go-to-market strategy for a new Fractional CTO and tech assessment business.

A member requests restricting @channel mentions as they find all such notifications unnecessary, particularly in what they describe as a marketing channel, with an admin promising to review the situation.

A request for recommendations on outsourced development partners in Eastern Europe to build GoodNotes for Android and Windows tablets using React, receiving three vendor suggestions from community members.

A brief exchange noting that Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry) is experiencing a global outage, with additional insight that the underlying S3 centralization is causing pipeline failures.

Brief announcement of an AWS outage in the us-east-1 region occurring on a Monday, garnering acknowledgment from community members through reactions.

A community member successfully rallies participants to complete the alphalist x Albany Partners CTPO Debate Survey, offering an iPad as a prize incentive and ultimately exceeding their goal with 111 responses.

A tech leader shares their new open-source ERP project built with TypeScript and AI assistance (Codex), highlighting its modular architecture, multi-tenant capabilities, and modern tech stack while seeking feedback and contributors.

A free, ready-to-use AI in Engineering Survey was shared to help engineering leaders identify barriers to AI adoption, successful use cases, untapped opportunities, and changing roles within their teams.

A solo founder announces the public launch of DoneThat.ai, an AI-powered time tracking tool that automates activity monitoring after a quick 2-minute setup, on Product Hunt after six months of iteration with early users.

A community member shared an article about agentic design systems as a solution for bridging the gap between UX designers and AI development tools, generating interest from other tech leaders.

A community member shares that Cursor now offers custom slash commands for switching between different roles (like Backend Developer or UX Designer) when prototyping, sparking interest in collecting useful commands.

A community member shared their experience creating something with Langchain and Nano Banana Pro in just 20 minutes using agentic architecture documentation, receiving positive feedback from peers.

A brief resource-sharing thread informing the community about free access to Google's Gemini 3 AI model through AI Studio, with the option to obtain an API key for integration with development tools.

A community member shared Google's new Code Wiki tool for accelerating code understanding, receiving enthusiastic reactions and a suggestion for an alternative solution using Devin with Slack repositories.

A discussion seeking recommendations for AI tools that help non-technical UX/UI designers with prototyping, resulting in several specific tool suggestions and insights about component-based design approaches.

A tech leader shares Gemini's comical failure to summarize a Confluence page of weekly updates, producing only dots instead of text, prompting humorous reactions from the community.

A request for recommendations of web agencies that can build a website for a German industrial high-tech product manufacturer with focus on content structure, product presentation, and B2B shop integration received two specific agency suggestions.

A discussion evaluating modern website building platforms (Webflow, Framer, and Figma) as alternatives to WordPress for a company's website relaunch, with participants sharing experiences, limitations, and highlighting Figma Sites as promising but still in beta.

A professional seeking insights on IT Service Management workflows and best practices receives recommendations about MDM solutions like swif.ai for device management and connects with others in the space for further discussion.

A tech leader is seeking recommendations for experienced C++ clean code specialists to establish standards and clean up a large, messy 2.7GiB legacy Windows codebase with mixed German/English naming and no coding standards.

A tech leader seeks advice on negotiating with Figma for licenses, receiving input that Figma typically maintains a strict no-discount policy unless purchasing in high volume.

A tech leader is seeking first-hand experience with Compose Multiplatform for cross-platform mobile development, with one participant confirming successful migration of an internal app.

A tech leader seeks contacts at Google or advice for resolving an identity federation onboarding issue where an admin account is already taken and Google support is unresponsive since they're not yet customers.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for CTO coaches specializing in scaling engineering organizations from 20 to 100 people, receiving two specific coach recommendations with website links.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for developer trainings to inspire their Ruby FullStack senior team with their personal development budget, receiving suggestions for AWS certifications, clarifying training types, and Udemy licenses.

A tech leader seeks to compare notes on GitLab pricing for 100-200 users (Premium vs Ultimate tiers), receiving feedback from peers about their experiences and alternatives like Gitea.

A tech leader shares Gemini's comically literal interpretation of a request to summarize weekly status updates from a Confluence page, generating amusement among peers.

A developer inquires about using GenAI tools like Cursor to improve ABAP development efficiency, receiving feedback that current AI models aren't well-tuned for ABAP, though Google and SAP are working on specialized solutions.

A community member shared information about Claude AI's deprecated output styles, advising users to review options in `/output-style` and use CLAUDE.md or plugins instead, with reference to version 2.0.30.

A tech leader is seeking community feedback on Codeligence, a German company that builds AI agents for non-coding development tasks like story refinement and QA testing improvement.

Announcement of an AI Roundtable event with clarification that October 30th is the correct date after a member noted receiving invites for two different dates.

A brief discussion about OpenAI's new product announcement where participants express underwhelming reactions and compare it to alternatives like Comet, Dia, and Arc.

A brief exchange about an upcoming AI roundtable event, with confirmation that invitations will be sent out the following day and indication of interest from community members.

A brief discussion about the Uncloud deployment tool, where participants share their experiences and compare it to alternatives like Kamal and Docker Swarm for simple deployment needs.

A tech leader is seeking senior full-stack mobile freelancers with React Native and TypeScript experience for a short-term project, which sparked a brief side discussion about mobile app build and deployment tools like Bitrise and Expo.

A tech leader is seeking recommendations for quality freelancers for PowerPoint slide deck creation and website development after having poor experiences with Fiverr contractors.

Users report experiencing slow GitHub operations and connection failures despite GitHub's status page showing all systems operational, raising questions about service reliability monitoring.

A tech leader seeks negotiation insights on Stripe's 1% invoicing fee while considering alternatives to Invoiced.com, receiving a recommendation for Chargebee as a multi-gateway solution.

A community member is seeking recent information on enterprise pricing (500+ engineers) for Engineering Intelligence Platforms like Swarmia, LinearB, or Haystack, with another member suggesting additional platforms and a potential contact for pricing information.

A request for affordable videographer recommendations for product videos (without live action filming) received a specific referral that was appreciated by the original poster.

A humorous post jokingly claiming to have obtained AWS's internal deployment strategy, which received numerous laughing reactions from the community.

A brief message expressing empathy for those affected by a technical incident in Seattle while noting the value of post-incident analyses that typically follow such events.

The thread humorously points out that downtime monitoring services like downdetector.com and isdown.app were themselves experiencing outages, with members appreciating the irony.

A tech leader is seeking help with Amazon Seller API migration to the new Solution Provider Portal, expressing frustration over threatening emails despite completing all required steps and receiving no clear confirmation from Amazon support.

A tech leader seeks advice on scalable methods for sourcing Elixir Phoenix talent beyond Stack Overflow and meetups, receiving an offer for direct engineer referrals.

A community member inquired about the code.talks 2025 conference schedule for travel planning purposes, and organizers responded that the schedule is being finalized and provided general timing information.

A tech leader is experiencing persistent race conditions with Telnyx's telephony service affecting call forwarding functionality and seeks community input on whether to migrate to Twilio based on others' experiences with both providers.

A brief announcement about the release of Opus 4.5, which received positive engagement from the community as indicated by multiple reactions.

Tech leaders discuss Antigravity's impressive Chrome integration capabilities while noting current limitations with rate limits that affect usability.

Community members share and react positively to Google's Gemini 3 AI model release, particularly noting its impressive coding capabilities described as being able to 'vibe code'.

A brief exchange where a tech leader inquires about experiences implementing ReBAC in larger products, receiving a strong recommendation for SpiceDB from a peer who considers it indispensable for authorization.

A tech leader seeks help with setting up automated WhatsApp messaging with HubSpot specifically for German phone numbers, receiving recommendations for Superchat as a potential solution that integrates with both platforms.

A tech leader seeks community input on establishing a tech hub in Dubai based on their CEO's suggestion, questioning claims about cost savings and talent availability, but receives limited feedback indicating that Dubai may not offer the expected cost advantages.

A tech leader seeks recommendations for tools beyond Miro to document team topologies with better metadata capabilities for personnel planning and team health tracking.

A member shared BuddiesHR as an interesting HR software option with notable pricing, which sparked a brief discussion about the company's legitimacy when another member initially couldn't find their address information.

A community member seeks recommendations for Bildungsurlaub-approved education providers specializing in deep tech and engineering topics like AI and IT Security, receiving a suggestion for 'school.digitale-leute.de'.

Request for a Shopify expert with order management and fulfillment expertise to help a startup complete their implementation, with one response providing a potential resource.

A community member shared information about upcoming Cursor office hours in Berlin, but another member noted it was too short notice for them to attend.

A brief exchange noting that DynamoDB is experiencing an outage attributed to DNS issues, with community members acknowledging the common occurrence of DNS-related problems.

Brief comment appreciating Claude's ability to 'un-deprecate output styles' in code, noting it as a learning opportunity for new terminology.