Field reports
What we're testing this week.
Hands-on reviews, "I tried X for 30 days," migrations, and tool launches we think you should know about.
Jun 24, 2026
Make vs n8n for AI Automation: Which Workflow Engine for Operators
Make vs n8n compared on AI agent capabilities, hosting flexibility, and true cost of ownership—so operators can pick the right engine.
Jun 22, 2026
Clay vs Apollo for GTM Data: Enrichment Engine vs Data Provider
Clay and Apollo aren't competing tools—they're different layers of the same stack. Here's how operators think about the divide and when to run both.
Jun 21, 2026
What an MCP Server Actually Is (and Why Operators Should Care)
Plain-English explainer of Model Context Protocol servers, clients, and hosts — and why every operator wiring AI agents to real tools needs to understand MCP now.
Jun 20, 2026
Gemini CLI vs Claude Code: Google's terminal agent, reviewed
Google's Gemini CLI vs Anthropic's Claude Code — current model access, pricing reality, ecosystem fit, and who should run which tool.
Jun 18, 2026
v0 vs Lovable vs Bolt: Which Prompt-to-App Builder Ships Real Software
A no-hype breakdown of v0, Lovable, and Bolt—where each fits, how they're priced, and where generated apps break in production.
Jun 17, 2026
Devin vs OpenHands: Managed Autonomy vs Self-Hosting
Devin 2.0's ACU pricing vs OpenHands' self-hosted open-source model — a clear-eyed look at cost, control, and benchmark caveats.
Jun 16, 2026
Claude Code vs Aider: The Honest Terminal-Agent Comparison
Claude Code's polish vs Aider's model-agnostic control — pricing, features, benchmarks, and when each terminal agent actually wins.
Jun 15, 2026
AI knowledge tools: turning company docs into something agents can use
Glean, Dust, Sana and their class of tools are redefining enterprise search. Here's what grounding, permissions, and RAG mean for operators deploying agents.
Jun 14, 2026
Cline and Roo Code: The Open-Source 'Free Cursor' Coding Agents
Cline and Roo Code brought bring-your-own-model agentic coding to VS Code. Here's what operators need to know, including Roo's May 2026 shutdown.
Jun 13, 2026
Structured outputs: getting reliable JSON out of LLMs in production
How to use native structured outputs, tool-use schemas, Pydantic validation, and retry patterns to get schema-compliant JSON from LLMs reliably.
Jun 12, 2026
How to Run an AI Vendor Pilot That Tells You Something Real
A practical playbook for operators: how to set success metrics, spot demo-ware, and build escape hatches into every AI vendor pilot.
Jun 11, 2026
Is AI Ready to Replace the SDR? An Honest 2026 Read
Where AI SDR tools actually replace vs. augment human reps, what deliverability really costs, and why the data layer decides everything.
Jun 10, 2026
Intercom Fin vs Zendesk AI: Support Resolution, Compared
Outcome pricing, containment rates, and integration depth compared across Intercom Fin and Zendesk AI for operators picking a support stack.
Jun 8, 2026
Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse: AI SEO Content Tooling, Compared
Two AI SEO platforms, two different jobs. Compare Surfer SEO and MarketMuse on workflow, data depth, pricing, and who each tool actually fits.
Jun 7, 2026
AI App Builders: An Operator's Buyer's Guide
How to evaluate prompt-to-app tools on pricing, production-readiness, code ownership, and exit paths before you commit.
Jun 6, 2026
Manus and the general-agent push: what a do-anything AI really automates
Manus, OpenAI Operator, and the general-agent wave promise to do everything. Here's what they actually automate—and where operators hit the wall.
Jun 5, 2026
Glean vs Dust: Enterprise AI Search and Assistants Compared
Glean and Dust both promise work-grounded AI, but serve different operators. Here's how connectors, grounding quality, and pricing stack up.
Jun 4, 2026
Prompt caching: the AI cost lever most teams ignore
Prompt caching cuts token costs by up to 90% on repeated context. Here's how it works, which providers support it, and the gotchas operators miss.
Jun 3, 2026
Agent-to-Agent (A2A): the standard letting AI agents work together
What Google's A2A protocol is, how it pairs with MCP, and why multi-agent interoperability finally matters for operators building real stacks.
Jun 2, 2026
The AI voice-agent stack: where automated phone support actually works
A clear-eyed guide to voice-agent platforms, support incumbents, containment rates, escalation design, and where the whole stack falls apart.
May 27, 2026
The hidden architecture of production AI agents: what separates working deployments from demos
An operator's read on the engineering layers that actually determine whether an AI agent ships and holds up — CLAUDE.md investment, MCP tool surfaces, eval harnesses, cost controls, escalation patterns, observability, and the failure modes that don't show up until the agent is live.
May 5, 2026
Can AI actually run a company yet? An honest 2026 status check
Forget the hype. Here's a function-by-function read on what AI can credibly run inside a real business in 2026 — and where you still need humans.
May 4, 2026
Perplexity Comet vs. OpenAI Operator: which browser agent should you actually use in 2026?
Two products shipping into the same category with different theories of how a browser agent should work. Where each one wins, where each one breaks, and the architectural bet you're making either way.
May 2, 2026
The AI SDR stack in 2026: where it works, where it breaks, what's actually worth paying for
An operator's read on the AI SDR category — 11x, Artisan, Clay, Rox — what the marketing pages get right, what they hide, and the deliverability problem nobody on the vendor side wants to talk about.
Apr 29, 2026
Cursor vs. Claude Code vs. Windsurf: which AI coding tool wins in 2026?
Three different bets on the future of AI-assisted development. Where each one wins, where each one breaks, and how to choose based on how your team actually writes code.
Apr 26, 2026
How to set up Claude Code for a real engineering team
A practical playbook for rolling out Claude Code beyond a single developer — CLAUDE.md, hooks, permissions, MCP servers, and the review workflows that actually scale.
Apr 21, 2026
Replace your SDR with AI or augment them? An honest 2026 read
The 'AI SDR' pitch is replacement. The reality, for most companies, is augmentation. A working framework for choosing — and the hybrid pattern most outbound teams should actually run.