https://zidanewu.com/Recent content on Zidane — Tech & AI Bloghttps://zidanewu.com/og-default.pnghttps://zidanewu.com/og-default.pngHugo -- 0.146.0en-usSun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-coding-agent-prompt-injection-security/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-coding-agent-prompt-injection-security/Prompt injection attacks on AI coding agents are real and growing. Here&#39;s how a hidden payload in a GitHub issue nearly compromised our build system.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-agents-taking-fun-out-of-programming/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-agents-taking-fun-out-of-programming/AI coding agents handle the creative parts of engineering while humans review diffs. A tech lead&#39;s honest account of managing team morale when the fun parts disappear.https://zidanewu.com/posts/google-stitch-review-tech-lead/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/google-stitch-review-tech-lead/A tech lead&#39;s honest review of Google Stitch 2.0&#39;s AI-native canvas after testing it on three real projects. What works, what doesn&#39;t, and who should actually use it.https://zidanewu.com/posts/agentic-engineering-vs-vibe-coding/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/agentic-engineering-vs-vibe-coding/Agentic engineering is the hot new term for professional AI-assisted coding. After running it on real projects, here&#39;s what the evangelists aren&#39;t telling you.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-code-review-vs-human-100-prs/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-code-review-vs-human-100-prs/I ran an informal A/B test across 100 PRs, routing each through both AI and human review. AI caught 23 bugs humans missed. It also produced hundreds of useless comments. Here&rsquo;s what the data actually says.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-coding-standards-team-guide/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-coding-standards-team-guide/Ad-hoc AI usage creates inconsistency and hidden risk. Here&#39;s how to build a practical standard: AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, prompt libraries, and review checklists — with real templates.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-1on1-meeting-prep/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-1on1-meeting-prep/AI can help you prep for 1:1s by surfacing action items, recent PRs, and discussion topics. But there&rsquo;s a line you shouldn&rsquo;t cross: never let AI write your actual feedback.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-standup-automation-gone-wrong/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-standup-automation-gone-wrong/Automating standup notes with AI seemed like a small quality-of-life win. It turned out to surface real questions about surveillance, trust, and what standup is actually for.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-rfc-writing-experiment/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-rfc-writing-experiment/Claude drafted a technical RFC in 20 minutes. My teammates said it &#39;reads like a textbook.&#39; Here&#39;s what the experiment taught us about where AI fits in technical writing.https://zidanewu.com/posts/mcp-servers-daily-use/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/mcp-servers-daily-use/After running MCP servers in my daily workflow for months, here&#39;s what&#39;s genuinely useful versus what sounded great in a demo and quietly disappeared from my setup.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-generated-tests-hidden-cost/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-generated-tests-hidden-cost/AI can write tests in seconds, but coverage numbers are lying to you. Here&#39;s how tautological, implementation-coupled tests let a real bug survive for three weeks.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-legacy-code-migration-guide/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-legacy-code-migration-guide/AI tools can genuinely help with legacy code — but only on the right problems. Understanding and documentation: yes. Refactoring core logic you don&rsquo;t fully understand: hard no.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-database-migration-cautionary-tale/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-database-migration-cautionary-tale/An AI-generated migration ran perfectly in dev. In production, it would have locked a large production table during business hours. What I learned the hard way about AI and database changes.https://zidanewu.com/posts/senior-engineers-ai-skeptics/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/senior-engineers-ai-skeptics/Senior engineers have seen enough hype cycles to be skeptical of AI tools — and their concerns about maintainability and debugging complexity are legitimate. But refusing to engage is its own kind of risk.https://zidanewu.com/posts/codex-vs-claude-code-2026/Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/codex-vs-claude-code-2026/Codex just hit 1M weekly active users. Claude Code has been my daily driver for months. I gave both the same tasks for a week and tracked everything.https://zidanewu.com/posts/nyt-coding-dead-response/Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/nyt-coding-dead-response/The NYT&#39;s &#39;Coding After Coders&#39; piece made a lot of engineers defensive. As a Tech Lead managing a small engineering team, I read it twice. Here&#39;s my honest take.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-coding-tool-credit-pricing-trap/Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-coding-tool-credit-pricing-trap/How credit-based pricing took over AI coding tools and why your team is probably paying 3x more than the sticker price.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-tool-switching-cost-teams/Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-tool-switching-cost-teams/The hidden cost of AI tool churn: context switching, config drift, and the productivity tax nobody talks about.https://zidanewu.com/posts/cursor-automations-always-on-agents/Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/cursor-automations-always-on-agents/A practical look at Cursor&#39;s new Automations feature — always-on coding agents triggered by PRs, Slack, and PagerDuty. What worked, what broke, and what it means for engineering teams.https://zidanewu.com/posts/gpt-5-4-coding-first-look/Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/gpt-5-4-coding-first-look/A hands-on first look at GPT-5.4&#39;s coding capabilities — benchmarks, real-world impressions, and where it still falls short compared to Claude Opus 4.6.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-pr-review-bots-comparison/Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-pr-review-bots-comparison/A hands-on comparison of CodeRabbit, Qodo, Ellipsis, and BugBot after 30 days of running them on real pull requests. Real bug counts, false positives, and honest verdicts.https://zidanewu.com/posts/vibe-coding-technical-debt/Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/vibe-coding-technical-debt/What happens when you let AI generate a feature end-to-end without governance. A tech lead&#39;s honest account of the fallout.https://zidanewu.com/posts/block-layoffs-ai-white-collar-panic/Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/block-layoffs-ai-white-collar-panic/Block cut 4,000 employees citing AI efficiency. What does this mean for white-collar workers, and how do you stay relevant?https://zidanewu.com/posts/claude-code-review-checklist-2026/Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/claude-code-review-checklist-2026/A practical Claude Code review checklist for tech leads: 12 checks that catch real bugs before merge.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-review-agents-same-pr-test/Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-review-agents-same-pr-test/I tested five AI code review agents on one messy PR and compared signal, noise, and review time savings.https://zidanewu.com/posts/fake-ai-chrome-extensions-developer-security/Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/fake-ai-chrome-extensions-developer-security/Fake AI Chrome extensions are stealing developer API keys and credentials. Here&#39;s how my team found one, what we learned, and how to audit yours.https://zidanewu.com/posts/figma-code-to-canvas-review/Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/figma-code-to-canvas-review/Hands-on review of Figma&#39;s new Code to Canvas feature powered by Anthropic. What works, what breaks, and whether it actually fixes the design-dev gap.https://zidanewu.com/posts/github-agentic-workflows-review/Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/github-agentic-workflows-review/A hands-on review of GitHub Agentic Workflows after running them on a real repo for a week — the wins, the surprises, and the stuff that&#39;s not ready yet.https://zidanewu.com/posts/engineering-manager-ai-tools-2026/Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/engineering-manager-ai-tools-2026/AI isn&#39;t just for writing code. Here&#39;s how I use it for 1:1s, planning, documentation, and the other 60% of a tech lead&#39;s job.https://zidanewu.com/posts/mcp-fragmentation-add-mcp/Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/mcp-fragmentation-add-mcp/I wasted 3 hours configuring MCP servers across 4 editors. Then I found add-mcp, a CLI that does it in one command.https://zidanewu.com/posts/prompt-engineering-developers-2026/Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/prompt-engineering-developers-2026/Skip the prompt engineering hype. Here are 7 concrete patterns that make AI coding tools significantly more useful.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-code-review-2026/Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-code-review-2026/A practical guide to using AI for code review — what actually works, what doesn&#39;t, and where human judgment still matters.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-code-generation-mistakes/Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-code-generation-mistakes/AI-generated code has predictable failure modes. Here are the 8 most common mistakes I see and the workarounds I&#39;ve developed.https://zidanewu.com/posts/cursor-vs-claude-code-2026/Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/cursor-vs-claude-code-2026/An honest comparison of Cursor and Claude Code from someone who uses both daily. When to use which, and why you probably need both.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-api-design/Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-api-design/How I use AI to design, review, and document APIs — the patterns that save time and the ones that waste it.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-development-workflow/Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-development-workflow/A complete walkthrough of integrating AI into every phase of software development — from planning to deploy. What works, what doesn&#39;t, and the workflow I&#39;ve settled on.https://zidanewu.com/posts/claude-code-tips-2026/Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/claude-code-tips-2026/Practical AI coding assistant tips from a Tech Lead who uses them daily. No fluff — just real workflows that work with Claude Code, Copilot Chat, Cursor, and similar tools.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-incident-response/Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-incident-response/How we integrated AI into our incident response process — what accelerated resolution and what made things worse.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-remote-engineering-teams/Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-remote-engineering-teams/Not another list of productivity apps. These are the AI workflows that genuinely improve async communication, code review, and sprint planning for distributed teams.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-tools-tech-lead-2026/Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-tools-tech-lead-2026/Not a listicle of 50 tools you&#39;ll never try. These are the 7 AI tools I use daily as a Tech Lead managing engineers and data scientists.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-onboarding-engineers/Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-onboarding-engineers/We cut our engineering onboarding time from 6-8 weeks to about 3 weeks. AI wasn&#39;t the only factor, but it was the biggest one.https://zidanewu.com/posts/writing-technical-docs-with-ai/Sat, 03 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/writing-technical-docs-with-ai/Practical templates and prompts for writing RFCs, ADRs, runbooks, and other technical documents with AI assistance.https://zidanewu.com/posts/local-llms-vs-cloud/Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/local-llms-vs-cloud/I run local LLMs for some tasks and cloud APIs for others. Here&#39;s my framework for deciding which to use when.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-pair-programming-guide/Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-pair-programming-guide/How to use AI as a genuine pair programming partner — workflow design, prompting strategies, and when to ditch the AI and think for yourself.https://zidanewu.com/posts/github-copilot-review-2026/Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/github-copilot-review-2026/GitHub Copilot was the first AI coding tool most of us used. With Cursor, Claude Code, and others now available, is it still worth paying for?https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-sprint-planning/Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-sprint-planning/We&#39;ve been using AI to assist with sprint planning for six months. Some things worked surprisingly well. Others were a waste of time.https://zidanewu.com/posts/windsurf-vs-cursor-2026/Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/windsurf-vs-cursor-2026/I used Windsurf and Cursor side by side for 30 days. Here&#39;s which AI-powered IDE is better for different types of developers.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-debugging-production/Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-debugging-production/Real production debugging stories using AI tools — stack traces, log analysis, and the mistakes I made along the way.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-refactoring-legacy-code/Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-refactoring-legacy-code/Legacy code is scary. AI can help you understand it, test it, and refactor it — if you&#39;re careful about how you use it.https://zidanewu.com/posts/free-ai-coding-tools-2026/Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/free-ai-coding-tools-2026/Not every AI coding tool needs a $20/month subscription. These 5 free tools are genuinely useful for developers on a budget.https://zidanewu.com/posts/copilot-vs-cursor-vs-claude-code/Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/copilot-vs-cursor-vs-claude-code/A hands-on comparison of the three biggest AI coding tools. Real code scenarios, real opinions, real costs.https://zidanewu.com/posts/llm-context-window-guide/Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/llm-context-window-guide/Context windows are the single most important LLM concept for developers to understand. Here&#39;s what I wish someone had told me earlier.https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-testing-strategies/Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/ai-testing-strategies/After 6 months of integrating AI into our testing workflow, here&#39;s what actually improved — and what surprised me.https://zidanewu.com/posts/chatgpt-vs-claude-2026/Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/posts/chatgpt-vs-claude-2026/A real-world comparison of ChatGPT and Claude for software development — coding, reasoning, context handling, and pricing. No fanboys, just honest experience.https://zidanewu.com/about/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/about/<h2 id="about-this-blog">About This Blog</h2> <p>I&rsquo;m an engineering lead working on data infrastructure at a mid-size tech company. I started this blog because I kept having the same conversations with other tech leads about which AI tools are actually useful versus which ones just demo well.</p> <p>Most of what I write comes from my day-to-day: managing a team, reviewing code, writing RFCs, and trying to get more done without burning out. I test a lot of tools and only write about the ones that stick around in my workflow for more than a week.</p>https://zidanewu.com/resources/code-review-prompts/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://zidanewu.com/resources/code-review-prompts/10 copy-paste prompts for AI-assisted code review. Battle-tested on 500+ PRs.