Production-tested LLM cost optimization tactics. Prompt caching, model routing, semantic caching, batching, fine-tuning small models, output bounds, and the architecture decisions that make the cost line item bearable.
Why an MCP server is now table stakes for SaaS distribution, what tools and resources to expose, OAuth patterns for hosted MCP, observability, and a complete working server in TypeScript.
Reliable structured output from LLMs in 2026. Pydantic AI, Instructor, OpenAI’s structured outputs / Anthropic tool calling, retry-on-validation patterns, and the end of homemade JSON parsing.
Why AI gateways became standard infrastructure in 2026. The OpenAI-compatible façade pattern, LiteLLM vs Portkey vs Helicone vs OpenRouter, fallbacks, caching, observability, cost control, and how to drop one in front of an existing app.
When multi-agent systems beat single-agent, the supervisor / worker / reviewer / critic patterns, hierarchical vs swarm, communication models, evaluation, and the production patterns that survive contact with users.
An honest 2026 comparison of Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Code. Strengths, pricing, context windows, agent modes, multi-file edits, and a clear by-workflow recommendation.
A practical 2026 decision guide for LLM teams. When fine-tuning earns its cost, when RAG is right, when prompting is enough, the hybrid patterns, and the ops realities that change which one fits.
How Claude Code Skills work, the SKILL.md format, when skills beat tools, multi-session workflows (writer/reviewer, fresh-context review), and the agentic coding patterns that ship real production code in 2026.
MCP from first principles — the protocol, transports (stdio, HTTP), tools/resources/prompts, why it works, and a concrete walkthrough of building an MCP server in Python and TypeScript.
A practical guide to self-hosting LLMs in 2026. Ollama for development, vLLM and SGLang for production, model selection (Llama 3.3, Qwen 2.5, DeepSeek V3), hardware sizing, batching, and when self-hosting is genuinely cheaper than the API.