February 2, 2026
Building in Public: Lessons from MACX
This article is part of a series about MACX Exocortex.
”Tests Pass” ≠ “Works”
[TODO: The Forge TDD story - 146 tests passed, build failed. jsdom lies. E2E as forcing function]
Over-Prompting Reduces Quality
[TODO: Codex works best with minimal direction. Trust the model]
Context Is Not Memory
[TODO: If you don’t write it down, it’s gone. Persist immediately]
The 30-Minute Timeout
[TODO: Why 15 minutes wasn’t enough, complex coding tasks need time]
Agent Profiles > System Prompts
[TODO: Separation of identity from task, why it matters]
What I’d Do Differently
[TODO: Honest retrospective]
Previous: Memory That Compounds