{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "person": {
    "id": "shardul-vaidya",
    "name": "Shardul Vaidya",
    "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
    "level": "practitioner",
    "levelMeaning": "Someone doing the work at the organization.",
    "organization": "Amazon",
    "organizationId": "amazon",
    "passages": 8,
    "reported": 0,
    "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
    "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/people/shardul-vaidya.json",
    "background": "Solutions architect for data and AI at AWS (the Background Agents Summit session page lists the affiliation as AWS); his talk demonstrates a coding factory he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\".",
    "whyCredible": "Built and runs the factory he demonstrates, so he can speak to how it works, but it is a personal project and not an AWS product, and he also describes how its pieces map onto AWS services that AWS sells.",
    "linkedin": null,
    "x": null,
    "profileSource": "https://background-agents.com/summit/sessions/shardul-vaidya/"
  },
  "passages": [
    {
      "id": "amazon-prompt-trivial-generated-23-tasks-dag-2026",
      "text": "And you can see here that the prompt I provided was very trivial. It's like, hey, we've done a bunch of code review, solve all of the requests from the code review. And you can see that it's generated, I don't know, about 20-something tasks, yeah, about 23 tasks. And we get this beautiful DAG that defines what needs to be done in what order.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "11:35",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "coding-agents",
        "parallel-agents"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [
        {
          "metric": "tasks-planned-from-one-prompt",
          "value": 23,
          "unit": "tasks",
          "period": "one demo run",
          "definition": "tasks the factory's planner generated from a short prompt asking it to resolve code review comments, as the speaker counts them on screen ('about 23')",
          "level": "unclear"
        }
      ],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-prompt-trivial-generated-23-tasks-dag-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-prompt-trivial-generated-23-tasks-dag-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-whole-ui-built-entirely-factory-over-300-commits-2026",
      "text": "And this actually, as a matter of fact, this whole UI that you're seeing right now was built entirely by the factory. And we can go look at the code for a minute, we can go down to the factory. And you can see here, there's over 300 commits that are essentially very tight requirements down to, right, oh, hey, it's just … net reduction in entropy. And we can force the factory to behave that way.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "13:17",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "ai-written-code",
        "coding-agents"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [
        {
          "metric": "factory-commits-building-its-own-ui",
          "value": 300,
          "unit": "commits",
          "period": "as shown in the demo, 'over 300'",
          "definition": "commits in the factory's repository that the speaker says the factory made while building its own dashboard UI; the speaker says 'over 300'",
          "level": "unclear"
        }
      ],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-whole-ui-built-entirely-factory-over-300-commits-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-whole-ui-built-entirely-factory-over-300-commits-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-back-pressure-plan-reviewer-code-reviewer-test-executor-2026",
      "text": "Back pressure in our factory comes in two specific ways. The planned reviewer and then the code reviewer. And then there's a deterministic back pressure from the test executor.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "14:10",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "autonomy-and-oversight",
        "code-review"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-back-pressure-plan-reviewer-code-reviewer-test-executor-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-back-pressure-plan-reviewer-code-reviewer-test-executor-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-exceeded-max-rework-count-escalation-human-2026",
      "text": "And then you can see a whole bunch of these are merged and then we have some failures that say, hey, we've exceeded max rework count. And that's essentially an escalation to me saying, hey, you should probably look at this yourself as a human because you're responsible for the code that it generates.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "12:55",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "autonomy-and-oversight",
        "reading-agent-code"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-exceeded-max-rework-count-escalation-human-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-exceeded-max-rework-count-escalation-human-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-isolation-reduce-blast-radius-sandboxes-2026",
      "text": "The isolation philosophy comes from two things, right? First, we obviously want to reduce the blast radius if a agent goes haywire. That's mainly provided by running these in isolated sandboxes. That can obviously be in Docker or in containers, that can also be on separate EC2 instances. However, you like to manage your isolation.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "16:11",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "where-agents-run",
        "agent-permissions"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-isolation-reduce-blast-radius-sandboxes-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-isolation-reduce-blast-radius-sandboxes-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-no-longer-writing-code-composing-factory-2026",
      "text": "The result of all of this is you're no longer writing code. You're composing the factory that writes the code for you. … architect verification frameworks, and fundamentally ensure correctness. You're responsible for it, but without actually writing every line.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "16:55",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "engineer-role"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-no-longer-writing-code-composing-factory-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-no-longer-writing-code-composing-factory-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-rework-loop-full-context-fed-forward-2026",
      "text": "Second, the rework loop is the biggest key. When a task fails, the full context of why it failed is fed forward into the next attempt. That's not a retry, that's essentially just a full rework.",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "8:14",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "coding-agents",
        "autonomy-and-oversight"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-rework-loop-full-context-fed-forward-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-rework-loop-full-context-fed-forward-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "amazon-tests-fail-never-get-code-reviewer-2026",
      "text": "And obviously, if the tests fail, we never get to the code reviewer. This is essentially how a maintainer would refuse to look at a PR…",
      "context": "Vaidya, an AWS solutions architect, is describing and demoing a dark factory (software built and merged by agents) that he built himself, which he calls \"my factory\"; it is not presented as an AWS product. The talk is from the Background Agents Summit, recorded 7 May 2026 and published by Ona.",
      "speaker": "Shardul Vaidya",
      "speakerId": "shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/shardul-vaidya",
      "speakerLevel": "practitioner",
      "role": "Solutions Architect, Data and AI, AWS",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Amazon",
      "organizationId": "amazon",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/amazon",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Dark Factories: Verification-First Agentic Engineering",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "Background Agents Summit (YouTube)",
        "locator": "15:28",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AvdrxsbaU"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "reported",
        "meaning": "Not yet confirmed against the source by an independent second reader."
      },
      "topics": [
        "code-review",
        "testing"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "engineering"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/amazon-tests-fail-never-get-code-reviewer-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/amazon-tests-fail-never-get-code-reviewer-2026.json"
    }
  ],
  "reportedPassages": [],
  "notice": [
    "Every passage is reproduced word for word from the cited source.",
    "Check the verification status: \"reported\" means not yet confirmed by an independent second reader.",
    "Organizations flagged aiVendor sell AI tools or services and have a reason to publish flattering numbers.",
    "An empty result means the archive holds nothing on it, not that nobody has said anything."
  ]
}