AI won’t live in chat. The future is headless agents doing real work — and calling humans only when it matters. Dexter Horthy, cofounder of HumanLayer, explains how agent-driven software actually ships.
In this fast, tactical deep-dive, we unpack HumanLayer’s origin story (from failed data tools to paid customers in a week), why frameworks lag real production apps, and the workflow that lets AI agents ship in complex codebases. We cover research-plan-implement loops, context engineering, team process, and how “specs become the new code.”
You’ll learn
- How HumanLayer emerged from a SQL “janitor” agent that needed human approvals
- The YC grind as a solo founder and closing first revenue in a week
- Why horizontal AI dev tools are hard — and how top 1% teams actually build
- Context engineering 101: research → plan → implement, and why it beats vibe coding
- How to review plans, not code, to scale quality across a team
Where headless agents win first — and why culture, not models, is the bottleneck.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Cold Open
00:21 Welcome to Lobster Talks
00:47 Guest Introduction and Background
01:12 Early Startup Journey
01:35 Building the AI Agent
02:18 Challenges and Pivots
03:52 Solo Founder Experience
05:28 The Importance of Data Tools
11:20 YC Experience and Revenue
13:59 Building for the 1% vs. 99%
23:50 Exploring New Ideas
25:18 Exploring Cloud Code SDK
25:34 Building Experiments with Claude
26:05 Challenges and Learnings
26:49 Insights from AI Engineering Talks
28:22 The Future of Coding with AI
30:22 Context Engineering and Workflow
32:19 Product Development and Customization
38:22 Scaling AI in Teams
48:10 Exciting Future Prospects
50:42 Conclusion and Farewell
📌 Watch now and subscribe for more smart, fast, founder-first interviews.
Show Notes & Resources:
• 14min Youtube video on wielding coding agents: https://hlyr.dev/ace
• Blog post version - https://github.com/humanlayer/advanced-context-engineering-for-coding-agents/blob/main/ace-fca.md
• Sign up for codelayer beta: https://humanlayer.dev/code
🎧 Listen on the go:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1u1JyRKH8JYFjhBkvTUOAP
Apple: https://apple.co/4cZ8RMm
My other YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GJarrosson
