AI Engineering

Field notes from building with AI tools in production: Claude Code errors and costs, MCP servers, RAG retrieval that returns the wrong chunks, and what shipped at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh.

Articles in this category

Codex Auto Compact: When It Triggers, and How to Control It
Codex compacts a long conversation automatically at 90% of the model's context window: 244,800 tokens on the 272K models in Codex 0.166.0. Where that number comes from, what model_auto_compact_token_limit can and can't change, why there's no off switch, how to compact between turns instead of mid-task, and what to do when compaction loops or loses your task.How-toAI EngineeringNovember 6, 202616 min read
Codex Auto Mode: How to Turn On 'Approve for Me', and Why It Still Asks
Codex has no setting called auto mode. The closest thing is Approve for me (Auto-review): the same sandbox as the default, with a reviewer agent approving what you used to approve. How to turn it on in the CLI, config.toml and the app, what it reviews, why it still asks or denies, what replaced --full-auto, and how it compares with Claude Code's auto mode.How-toAI EngineeringNovember 5, 202619 min read
Claude Code 'Not Logged In · Please Run /login' and 'Login Expired': What Each Means and the Fix
Claude Code says 'Not logged in · Please run /login' when the session has no credential it can use, and 'Login expired · Please run /login' when renewing your claude.ai login failed and the login was cleared. Since 2.1.318 there is a third: 'Login reached its time limit'. What each one means, how to check when your login ends, why Claude Code keeps logging you out, and how to stay signed in for scripts with claude setup-token.TroubleshootingAI EngineeringNovember 4, 202620 min read
Claude Code Auto Mode Is Now the Default: Turn It Off, or Keep It
Claude Code now starts in auto mode: 'Auto mode is now Claude Code's default permission mode.' What auto mode does, how to turn it off with permissions.defaultMode or Shift+Tab, how it compares with accept edits, plan and bypass permissions, and what each 'auto mode unavailable' message means.How-toAI EngineeringNovember 2, 202622 min read
Claude Code Sandbox: How to Set It Up on macOS, Linux, Windows and Docker (Tested)
How to sandbox Claude Code: turn on the built-in Bash sandbox with /sandbox, what it does and doesn't isolate, why it doesn't run on native Windows, and how to run Claude Code in Docker for --dangerously-skip-permissions. Includes a test showing the built-in sandbox can't start in a default Docker container.How-toAI EngineeringOctober 31, 202620 min read
Claude Code Deleted My Files: How to Get Them Back, and How to Stop It Happening Again
Claude Code deleted your files or your project? /rewind can't bring back a file only rm removed. The five places deleted files can still be, in order, then which protection (deny rules, hooks, the sandbox, containers) stops which kind of delete, tested.TroubleshootingAI EngineeringOctober 30, 202622 min read
Claude Code Auto Compact: Why It Keeps Compacting, and the Settings That Fix It
Claude Code compacting the conversation too often, far below the limit, or stopping with 'Autocompact is thrashing'? Those are four different causes: idle compaction, a small auto-compact window, something refilling the context, or an open bug. How to tell which one you have in a minute, with data from my own sessions, and the exact setting for each.TroubleshootingAI EngineeringOctober 28, 202618 min read
OpenCode's 'Free Tier Can Only Be Used From Within OpenCode' Error, Even in OpenCode: What Triggers It
OpenCode's free models refuse with 'free tier can only be used from within OpenCode' while you're using OpenCode. I tested which configs trigger it: a denied read permission does, a denied bash doesn't. Plus the newer 'detected abusive traffic from this IP address' block, which is your network, not your config.TroubleshootingAI EngineeringOctober 21, 202613 min read
Codex Crashpad 'pending' Eating Your Mac's Disk? Check, Clean and Stop It
Codex Desktop can write a crash dump every second into Crashpad/pending, and people have lost 59, 168, 323 and even 511 GB to it. Why the loop happens, how to check both folders, how to clean them safely, and what actually stops it.TroubleshootingAI EngineeringOctober 18, 202611 min read

AI Engineering

Articles in this category

Codex Auto Compact: When It Triggers, and How to Control It

Codex Auto Mode: How to Turn On 'Approve for Me', and Why It Still Asks

Claude Code 'Not Logged In · Please Run /login' and 'Login Expired': What Each Means and the Fix

Claude Code Auto Mode Is Now the Default: Turn It Off, or Keep It

Claude Code Sandbox: How to Set It Up on macOS, Linux, Windows and Docker (Tested)

Claude Code Deleted My Files: How to Get Them Back, and How to Stop It Happening Again

Claude Code Auto Compact: Why It Keeps Compacting, and the Settings That Fix It

OpenCode's 'Free Tier Can Only Be Used From Within OpenCode' Error, Even in OpenCode: What Triggers It

Codex Crashpad 'pending' Eating Your Mac's Disk? Check, Clean and Stop It

More topics

AI Engineering

Articles in this category

Codex Auto Compact: When It Triggers, and How to Control It

Codex Auto Mode: How to Turn On 'Approve for Me', and Why It Still Asks

Claude Code 'Not Logged In · Please Run /login' and 'Login Expired': What Each Means and the Fix

Claude Code Auto Mode Is Now the Default: Turn It Off, or Keep It

Claude Code Sandbox: How to Set It Up on macOS, Linux, Windows and Docker (Tested)

Claude Code Deleted My Files: How to Get Them Back, and How to Stop It Happening Again

Claude Code Auto Compact: Why It Keeps Compacting, and the Settings That Fix It

OpenCode's 'Free Tier Can Only Be Used From Within OpenCode' Error, Even in OpenCode: What Triggers It

Codex Crashpad 'pending' Eating Your Mac's Disk? Check, Clean and Stop It

More topics