Archive - The Main Thread

AI Wrote the Code. Did It Create Value?

Replacing one bad AI number with a vague one will not fix how we measure AI. We need the full cost of each result we can verify.

Jul 26 • Markus Eisele

Progress Users Can Trust for Long-Running Enterprise Jobs

Build an honest two-stage progress UI with Quarkus, PostgreSQL, Scheduler, SSE, cancellation, and state that survives a page reload.

Jul 24 • Markus Eisele

Quarkus TOTP with Vault: What Production-Ready Step-Up Requires

Turn one valid TOTP code into a two-minute step-up JWT, then let Quarkus RBAC protect the sensitive operation and test replay against Vault.

Jul 22 • Markus Eisele

Use skillsaw to Lint Bob Skills Before They Drift

Build a small invoice-processing Bob skill, add a reference file, wire CI, and test the behavior locally before the instructions spread across repos.

Jul 20 • Markus Eisele

Put OPA in Front of Your Quarkus MCP Tools

Use structured policy input and caller context to decide which MCP tools a client can see and call.

Jul 17 • Markus Eisele

Spec-Driven Development Needs an Exit Strategy

AI coding teams need small change briefs, native engineering artifacts, and enough judgment to stop Markdown specifications becoming a second codebase.

Jul 15 • Markus Eisele

Build Your First Hardened Quarkus Image with Jib and Java 25

The final Quarkus service in this article has no Dockerfile.

Jul 13 • Markus Eisele

Agentic Engineering Still Needs Human Judgment

After 510 daily posts on The Main Thread, this is a practical note on publishing cadence, Quarkus craft, and why agent-assisted work still needs…

Jul 11 • Markus Eisele

Give IBM Bob a Memory of the Quarkus Codebase

Indexed Quarkus with codebase-memory-mcp, ran the same @ConfigMapping trace with grep vs graph tools, compared cost

Jul 10 • Markus Eisele

Coding Agent Evaluation Is Not a Benchmark Slide

Measure whether the whole coding-agent workflow produces smaller wrong turns, better recoveries, clear test evidence, and work a human can trust.

Jul 9 • Markus Eisele

Wanaku MCP Router: Getting Started on Your Laptop

Run a local Wanaku router, import an HTTP toolset, forward an upstream MCP server, and merge both into one agent catalog.

Jul 8 • Markus Eisele

AI Agents and the Rockstar Developer Problem

Generated code arrives fast, but teams still need shared design, local conventions, change budgets, and review gates before output becomes software they…

Jul 7 • Markus Eisele

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts