Tom Sullivan

The Series

The Field Guide

Production AI lives inside a larger operating system. This guide maps the translation work, architecture, edges, prompts, measurement, and ownership that determine whether the result survives contact with reality. Read it as a path, not a pile.

The frame

Start Here

Start with the work around the model: translating the operation, investigating what failed, and deciding which work should be agentic at all.

  1. Forward-Deployed Engineering Is New. The Work Underneath It Is Not.

    Flagship

    Before forward-deployed engineering had its current label, implementation engineers and consultants were already walking operations, translating domain rules, and making software survive contact with reality.

Also in progress Information Architecture · Reliability · Epistemics · Synthesis · The Landscape · Collaboration & Sovereignty