The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source Agent psychosis: are we going insane? (News)
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Jan 19, 2026 The discussion dives deep into the potential madness of AI agent psychosis and its effects on developers. RepoBar emerges as a handy tool to keep GitHub projects visible and accessible. Ethan McCue shares transformative Postgres conventions that can streamline workflows. Meanwhile, Lea Verou highlights the urgent need to address the broken state of web dependencies, urging collaboration among standards bodies and developers to implement necessary fixes. It's a lively exploration of the intersection between technology, community, and open-source challenges.
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Agent Use Is Reshaping Developer Behavior
- Armin Ronacher warns that widespread use of coding agents is changing developer behavior and social norms.
- He observes degraded PR quality, parasocial AI relationships, and communities normalizing unhealthy reliance on agents.
Maintainers Hit By Low-Quality PRs
- Maintainers report PRs and issue reports that feel like an insult to their time.
- Contributors often think they helped and get agitated when maintainers close or reject those submissions.
Treat Social Apps Like File Systems
- Dan Abramov invites readers to view social apps through the file paradigm to improve portability and interoperability.
- He suggests the AT Protocol exemplifies a 'social file system' that enables app-agnostic social data.