Build Your Own Dark Software Factory

Description

A dark factory runs with the lights off. Nobody inspects each unit as it comes off the line, because the line itself is built to catch anything wrong before it ships. AI-written code needs the same line.

I run one, called Holodeck. An interviewer agent turns a problem into a versioned spec. A planner emits a validated issue graph from that spec. Sandboxed coding agents build each issue in isolated containers, behind an LLM code reviewer and deterministic tests and gates. In seven weeks it made 957 commits, 87% of them machine-authored, and shipped applications I never read.

What broke was never the model's code. It was always the machinery: containers, proxies, health checks, databases - including one issue that drew 4,485 review verdicts in three days because of a level-triggered loop. The failures are boring and operational, and they are also the entire difference between a demo and something you can trust.

This talk covers how to build the line and its gates: a spec precise enough that the model builds the right thing, and gates strict enough that the wrong thing never leaves the building, whoever or whatever wrote it. Tool-agnostic throughout. It is the advanced follow-on to The Spec Is the Hard Part.