“There is structure: doctrine and policy, human gates, and just fourteen mechanical “fences” (programmatic denials). But my agents are first-class colleagues. They work under my own identity, signing their own names to the work, and they can see the whole system and act independently. It is YOLO mode scaled up to the size of a small company.”
Steve Yegge, Independent; builds and runs Wheelhouse, a solo multi-agent software factory (2026). Describes his own system and spending first-hand; his claims about other companies are relayed from conversations and unverified. Self-reported figures.
Steve Yegge (independent) sells AI or agent tools or services, so it has a reason to publish flattering numbers about AI. The passage stays in the archive; read it with that in mind.
How this was checked
Checked against the source by a first reader, then confirmed independently by a second reader who fetched the source without seeing the first reader's notes (Independent review agent (Claude Sonnet), blind second pass from passage text and citation only, no repository access, 2026-11-07).
Matched in the RSS feed copy of 'The Counting House' (the Medium page is bot-blocked). It reads: 'There is structure: doctrine and policy, human gates, and just fourteen mechanical “fences” (programmatic denials). But my agents are first-class colleagues… It is YOLO mode scaled up to the size of a small company.' Exact match. I did not check the 'Wheelhouse Recap' heading, because the feed text had no headings.
How to cite this passage
Steve Yegge (Steve Yegge (independent)), “The Counting House”, Medium (Steve Yegge), 2026-10-27, at Wheelhouse Recap. https://steve-yegge.medium.com/the-counting-house-steve-yegge-83f5145cc35b Archived at https://the-ai-record.com/passages/steve-yegge-fourteen-mechanical-fences-agents-first-class-2026
Steve Yegge (independent)