Beyond Instructions: How Beads Lets AI Agents Build Like Engineers

Nov 26, 2025

Steve Yegge, an experienced software engineer known for his work at Amazon and Google, discusses his innovative Beads framework, which enhances AI coding agents with session memory and task management. He explains how Beads revolutionizes developer workflows, allowing AI to manage complex projects like a pro. The conversation goes into the future of engineering roles, emphasizing a shift from coding to supervising AI. With insights on multimodal tools, automated validation, and enabling junior developers, Steve reveals how to harness the power of AI in coding.

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ANECDOTE

Agent Fixes Game UI Live During Interview

Steve showed a React game client where an agent woke up and fixed rendering while they talked.
The agent used Playwright to take screenshots and validate UI changes against a reference image.

INSIGHT

Engineers Become Supervisors Of AI Workers

Steve Yegge runs AI agents like engineers: he supervises, guides, and iterates rather than coding every line himself.
Agents produce ~85% correct work, so human oversight focuses on validation, review, and orchestration.

ADVICE

Use Tracer Bullets To Get Unstuck

When stuck, pick the thinnest end-to-end "tracer bullet" and get that working first.
Constrain the problem to a minimal reproducible case and iterate until stable.

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In this episode of AI Tinkerers One-Shot, Joe sits down with Steve Yegge—engineer and creator of the Beads framework—to explore how open source tools are transforming the way we build with AI. Steve shares the story behind Beads, a new framework that gives coding agents memory and task management, enabling them to work longer, smarter, and more autonomously. From his days at Amazon and Google to leading engineering at Sourcegraph, Steve reveals how Beads is already reshaping developer workflows and why it’s gaining hundreds of contributors in just weeks.

What you’ll learn:

- How Beads gives coding agents “session memory” and lets them manage complex, multi-step projects.

- Why Steve believes the future of engineering is about guiding and supervising AI—rather than just writing code.

- The evolution from chaotic markdown files to structured, issue-based workflows.

- Techniques for multimodal prompting, automated screenshot validation, and “landing the plane” for session cleanup.

- The challenges and breakthroughs in deploying AI tools at scale within organizations.

- How Beads and similar frameworks are making it easier for both junior and senior developers to thrive in the age of AI.

Whether you’re a developer, tinkerer, or just curious about the next wave of AI-assisted coding, this deep dive with Steve Yegge will show you what’s possible now—and what’s coming next.

💡 Resources:

Beads – https://github.com/steveyegge/beads

Steve Yegge – https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveyegge/ & https://x.com/Steve_Yegge

AI Tinkerers – https://aitinkerers.org

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00:00 - Introduction to Steve Yegge and Beads Framework

02:10 - Steve's Background and Source Graph AMP

08:00 - Building a React Game Client with AI Agents

15:36 - Multimodal Prompting and Screenshot Validation

23:16 - Code Review Techniques and Agent Confidence

32:01 - The Evolution of Beads: From Markdown Chaos to Issue Tracking

43:11 - Landing the Plane: Automated Session Cleanup

52:09 - Deploying AI Tools in Organizations

58:59 - Code Review Bottlenecks and Graphite Solution

01:02:57 - Closing Thoughts on AI-Assisted Development