The Infra Pod Bazel and the Next Wave of AI Developer Infrastructure (Chat with Alex Eagle from Aspect Build)
Welcome to Episode 53 of The Infra Pod! Hosts Tim from Essence and Ian from Keycard are joined by special guest Alex Eagle, CEO and co-founder of Aspect Build. In this episode, Alex shares his journey from working on Angular at Google to founding a company around Bazel, Google's open-source build tool. The conversation dives deep into the challenges and motivations behind building developer infrastructure, the evolution of CI/CD systems, and the unique strengths and hurdles of adopting Bazel in organizations of all sizes.
The trio explores the future of software development, the impact of AI on coding and build systems, and the ongoing debate between monorepos and polyrepos. Alex also discusses Aspect's mission to make Bazel more accessible and the broader implications for developer productivity in an agentic, AI-driven world. Whether you're a platform engineer, open-source enthusiast, or just curious about the future of build tools, this episode is packed with insights and spicy predictions for the future of developer infrastructure.
00:00 – Introduction & Guest Background
Tim and Ian introduce Alex Eagle, who shares his journey from Google to founding Aspect Build.04:20 – Why Bazel?
Alex explains the motivation behind focusing on Bazel, its challenges, and the analogy to municipal infrastructure.10:55 – Bazel in the Real World
Discussion on Bazel’s adoption, who should use it, and the hurdles organizations face.21:06 – The Future: AI, Agents, and Build Systems
Exploring how AI and agentic coding are changing developer infrastructure and Bazel’s evolving role.43:01 – Closing & Takeaways
Final thoughts, how to learn more about Aspect and Bazel, and episode wrap-up.