Notes from the workbench.
Prompt engineering, context engineering, agents, and the AI advances worth paying attention to. Opinionated, specific, and shipped from the same workbench we build.
Prompt drift: a 2026 detection playbook
Prompt drift is when output quality changes over time even though the prompt didn't change. The 2026 cadence, three causes, and a four-step playbook.
Catalogue
15 LLM-as-a-judge prompt templates (copy-paste)
15 copy-paste LLM-as-a-judge templates as YAML, organized by dimension. 5 foundations plus 10 specialized rubrics for RAG, code, summarization, agents.
What is an Agent Skill?
An Agent Skill is a versioned folder of instructions and resources an LLM agent loads on demand. How Skills work, and how they differ from prompts and MCP.
Promptfoo alternatives after OpenAI acquisition
Promptfoo joined OpenAI on March 9, 2026. MIT license preserved; the steward changed. For multi-provider eval and red-teaming, the credible 2026 alternatives.
Langfuse alternatives: the honest comparison
Langfuse alternative tools compared in 2026: five buyer scenarios where Langfuse isn't the right fit, with honest tool recommendations for each.
LangSmith alternatives without per-trace fees
LangSmith's auto-upgrade-on-feedback can turn per-trace billing superlinear. Compare Langfuse, Helicone, Phoenix, Braintrust, and where Prompt Assay fits.
How to version prompts: the 2026 guide
Prompt versioning captures every prompt change as an immutable artifact. Seven concrete steps, worked examples, and where it fits in your stack.
How to set up prompt regression testing
A 7-step guide to building regression tests for production prompts. Catch breakage before deploy with golden datasets, scoring rubrics, and LLM judges.
PromptLayer alternatives: the honest comparison
PromptLayer alternatives compared honestly: current 2026 pricing, BYOK posture, and when Prompt Assay, LangSmith, Langfuse, or Braintrust fits better.
Sixty prompt engineering techniques, organized
A 2026 field guide to the 60 prompt engineering techniques worth knowing, organized into 10 workflow families with canonical examples from The Prompt Report.
What is a BYOK prompt tool?
A BYOK prompt tool routes every LLM call through your own API key. Here's what that means for cost, setup, and the three postures in the market.
Migrate from Humanloop: a 2026 re-home guide
Humanloop shut down Sep 2025. If the replacement you picked isn't sticking, this 2026 guide covers the durable asset, destinations, and BYOK math.