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AI Dev Landscape

The AI developer ecosystem moves weekly. This is my map — what exists, how it works, and what's worth adopting.

What This Is

A personal field guide to the AI tooling landscape. Not a tutorial collection or link dump — a structured reference for understanding how these tools work, how they relate, and what's worth investing time in.

The Stack

The AI developer ecosystem has layers, and understanding where a tool sits changes how you evaluate it:

Layer What It Does Key Tools
Fundamentals How models are trained Transformers, RLHF, DPO, distillation
Inference Running models Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp, SGLang
Coding Assistants AI writes code Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot
Agent Frameworks Autonomous tool use OpenClaw, LangGraph, CrewAI, smolagents
Protocols Integration standards MCP, tool use, A2A
RAG Knowledge retrieval LightRAG, LlamaIndex, Chroma, Qdrant
Patterns How to build with AI Skills, hooks, agentic workflows

How to Use This Site

  • Looking up a specific tool? Check the relevant section in the sidebar.
  • Want depth? Deep reads have detailed analyses of key tools.
  • Tracking trends? The Trends section is updated monthly.
  • Comparing options? Category overview pages have comparison tables.