Scaffolding is coping not scaling, and other lessons from Codex | OpenAI’s Thibault Sottiaux
Podcast: Dev InterruptedPublished On: Tue Jan 27 2026
Description: If you rely on complex scaffolding to build AI agents you aren't scaling you are coping. Thibault Sottiaux from OpenAI’s Codex team joins us to explain why they are ruthlessly removing the harness to solve for true agentic autonomy. We discuss the bitter lesson of vertical integration, why scalable primitives beat clever tricks, and how the rise of the super bus factor is reshaping engineering careers.LinearB: Measure the impact of GitHub Copilot and CursorFollow the show:Subscribe to our Substack Follow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelLeave us a ReviewFollow the hosts:Follow AndrewFollow BenFollow DanFollow today's guest:OpenAI Codex: Learn more about the models powering tools like GitHub Copilot.Codex Open Source Repo: The lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal (check out the Rust migration mentioned in the episode).Agent Skills Open Standard: The open standard and catalog for giving agents new capabilities.The Bitter Lesson: Richard Sutton’s essay on why compute-centric methods win in AI.Follow Tibo on X @thsottiaux | GitHubOFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.
The note was deleted
The note was saved
Your message was sent