{"podcast":{"title":"devtools.fm: Developer Tools, Open Source, Software Development","slug":"devtools-fm","podcast_index_feed_id":3745116,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/dd6922b4/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://devtools.fm","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/37046549/ce6a315e5ecf42d2.jpeg","author":"Andrew Lisowski, Justin Bennett","episode_count":172,"summary":"A podcast about developer tools and the people who make them. Join us as we embark on a journey to explore modern developer tooling and interview the people who make it possible. We love talking to the creators front-end frameworks (React, Solid, Svelte, Vue, Angular, etc), JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes (Node, Deno, Bun), Languages (Unison, Elixor, Rust, Zig), web tech (WASM, Web Containers, WebGPU, WebGL), database providers (Turso, Planetscale, Supabase, EdgeDB), and platforms (SST, AWS, Vercel, Netlify, Fly.io).","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/devtools-fm"},"episode":{"title":"Ben Curtis - Honeybadger, Breakwater","slug":"ben-curtis-honeybadger-breakwater","published_at":"2026-03-09T00:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/devtools-fm/ben-curtis-honeybadger-breakwater","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/devtools-fm","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/devtoolsfm/episodes/Ben-Curtis---Honeybadger--Breakwater-e3g4ldd","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/dd6922b4/podcast/play/116593517/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-8%2F419564678-44100-2-df3cbd38901f8.m4a","summary":"Ben Curtis, co-founder of Honeybadger, discusses the evolution of developer tools from the BBS era to the modern AI-driven landscape. He shares insights on building resilient software products and navigating the shift toward automated observability.","meta_description":"Honeybadger CEO Ben Curtis discusses the future of observability, the impact of AI on development workflows, and building tools that solve real problems.","key_points":["Main idea: Successful developer tools solve immediate, identifiable pain points rather than chasing speculative trends","Practical takeaway: Use AI-friendly formats, like Markdown exports, to bridge the gap between error reporting and LLM-based debugging","Failure mode: Relying on private equity-driven models can degrade customer service and product quality in the observability space","Strategic insight: Focus on the 'things that don't change'—the fundamental human need for reliability and visibility in software","Industry trend: The rise of AI-generated code represents a massive paradigm shift similar to the transition from Assembly to C"],"chapters":[{"start_ms":60000,"title":"Early Tech Roots","summary":"Ben reflects on his beginnings with the TRS-80, the BBS scene, and the influence of Turbo Pascal."},{"start_ms":305000,"title":"The Evolution of Frameworks","summary":"A discussion on the cyclical nature of web technologies, specifically how Laravel drew inspiration from Ruby on Rails."},{"start_ms":555000,"title":"Identifying Market Gaps","summary":"The origin story of Honeybadger and the drive to build better error-tracking tools for the Rails community."},{"start_ms":795000,"title":"The Danger of Private Equity","summary":"How the acquisition of competitors by private equity firms led to a decline in developer-centric customer service."},{"start_ms":1550000,"title":"AI and the Developer Workflow","summary":"How Honeybadger integrates with LLMs via MCP servers and Markdown exports to enhance debugging."},{"start_ms":1790000,"title":"Introducing Breakwater","summary":"A look into Ben's new project, Breakwater, and the potential for personal access apps."},{"start_ms":3005000,"title":"The Future of Observability","summary":"Assessing whether the AI revolution will make traditional monitoring tools obsolete."}],"topics":["Software Development","Observability","Ruby on Rails","Artificial Intelligence","Error Tracking","Developer Experience","SaaS Strategy","Open Source"],"duration_seconds":3262,"processing_state":"processed","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/devtools-fm/episodes/ben-curtis-honeybadger-breakwater/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/devtools-fm/ben-curtis-honeybadger-breakwater.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}