Context Engineering as a Discipline: Building Governed AI Analytics

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Oct 11, 2025

Nick Schrock, CTO and founder of Dagster Labs, shares his insights on agentic analytics and the innovative Compass tool he developed. He explains how Compass transforms data teams into stewards of context while integrating seamlessly with Slack for enhanced collaboration. Schrock discusses the implications of agentic systems on Conway's Law and the need for new infrastructure to support these workflows. He also highlights cost control strategies and the future of context engineering in software development, unveiling his optimistic outlook on AI advancements.

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INSIGHT

Reframing Data Team Relationships

Compass reframes the data team–stakeholder relationship by making analysts into stewards rather than isolated implementers.
The goal is collaborative, Slack-native analytics that increase perceived and real platform value.

ADVICE

Programmatically Build A Context Store

Bootstrap context programmatically from the warehouse metadata and sampled data instead of dumping raw metadata.
Check generated context into Git so you can track, revert, and evolve context like code.

ADVICE

Capture Stakeholder Corrections In Git

Capture manual corrections from stakeholders directly into the context store so agents learn domain-specific meanings.
Surface and check those corrections into Git for governance and iterative improvement.

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Summary
In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast, host Tobias Macey welcomes back Nick Schrock, CTO and founder of Dagster Labs, to discuss Compass - a Slack-native, agentic analytics system designed to keep data teams connected with business stakeholders. Nick shares his journey from initial skepticism to embracing agentic AI as model and application advancements made it practical for governed workflows, and explores how Compass redefines the relationship between data teams and stakeholders by shifting analysts into steward roles, capturing and governing context, and integrating with Slack where collaboration already happens. The conversation covers organizational observability through Compass's conversational system of record, cost control strategies, and the implications of agentic collaboration on Conway's Law, as well as what's next for Compass and Nick's optimistic views on AI-accelerated software engineering.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management
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Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Nick Schrock about building an AI analyst that keeps data teams in the loop

Interview

Introduction
How did you get involved in the area of data management?
Can you describe what Compass is and the story behind it?
context repository structure
- how to keep it relevant/avoid sprawl/duplication
providing guardrails
how does a tool like Compass help provide feedback/insights back to the data teams?
preparing the data warehouse for effective introspection by the AI
LLM selection
cost management
- caching/materializing ad-hoc queries
Why Slack and enterprise chat are important to b2b software
How AI is changing stakeholder relationships
How not to overpromise AI capabilities
How does Compass relate to BI?
How does Compass relate to Dagster and Data Infrastructure?
What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Compass used?
What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Compass?
When is Compass the wrong choice?
What do you have planned for the future of Compass?

Contact Info

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.__init__ covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.
Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.
If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com with your story.

Links

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA