Essay
Systems Need Better Witnesses
On why evidence, narration, and public explanation matter more as software grows more agentic.
May 1, 2026 · 6 min read
As systems become more autonomous, the operational burden shifts. It is no longer enough to build the thing and hope the logs are sufficient.
We need better witnesses.
A good witness does not merely observe that something happened. They can describe the sequence, identify the missing context, and preserve the details needed for the next person to understand the event without mythology.
That matters in AI work because the gap between what the system did and what the team thinks it did can widen quickly. Once that gap opens, trust becomes anecdotal. Everyone has a story. Few people have evidence.
Writing is one way to close that gap. So is disciplined reporting. So is thoughtful instrumentation. What they share is a refusal to let complexity hide behind abstraction.
The more agentic our tools become, the more valuable clear public explanation becomes. Good systems are not only functional. They are discussable.