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What Steve Yegge thinks about coding agents

@steve-yegge · 25 positions · 0 changes of mind

Software engineer of four decades who spent years at Amazon and Google, wrote the Stevey's Blog Rants essays, and co-authored the book Vibe Coding with Gene Kim.

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Steve Yegge did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

4 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Steve Yegge has said — not written or endorsed by them.

4 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingAn excellent engineer who still reads the agent's diffs carefully before checking them in is going to get fired.

    Their wordsthey they're like, "Yeah, you know, I use Cursor, and I I ask it questions sometimes, and I'm really impressed with the answers, and then I review its code really carefully, and then I check it in." And I'm like, "Dude, you're going to get fired, and you're one of the best engineers I know."

    ↗From IDEs to AI Agents with Steve Yeggeyoutube.com 7th of 25 in this recording

  3. Our readingCoding agents demand more reading than most people can do, and until better interfaces arrive that leaves those people at a severe disadvantage.

    Their wordsSo I think we're in a weird limbo for the rest of this year okay where until the UIs arrive that are good enough for everybody who can't read everybody who can't read is going to be a severe disadvantage.

    ↗From IDEs to AI Agents with Steve Yeggeyoutube.com 9th of 25 in this recording

  5. Our readingBy the end of 2026 most people will be programming by talking to a face on the screen.

    Their wordsI think that by the end of this year and we'll see demos of it like right away, but by the end of this year most people will be programming by talking to a face. A face as in a face on the screen.

    ↗From IDEs to AI Agents with Steve Yeggeyoutube.com 10th of 25 in this recording

  7. Our readingA company on a monolith cannot use AI on it: no model in the next eighteen months will hold that codebase, so the monolith has to be broken up or rewritten.

    Their wordsIf you're a monolith, you're kind of hosed because I told you the ceiling's going up for what they can do, but it ain't ever going to hit your monolith. They will never fit in the context window and you're never going to be able to never in the next 18 months be able to tell a model go fix my monolith. You have to break it up.

    ↗From IDEs to AI Agents with Steve Yeggeyoutube.com 13th of 25 in this recording