This is a guest conversation episode of Ship It Weekly, separate from the weekly news recaps.

In this Ship It: Conversations episode, I talk with David Chute, founder and CEO of Roadie, about internal developer portals, Backstage, automation, and how IDPs may evolve as AI agents become more common in engineering workflows.

We talk about the difference between a platform and a portal, the three common problems IDPs usually try to solve, why discoverability tends to be the first pain teams feel, and why a lot of orgs should start with automation before trying to perfect a service catalog. We also get into self-hosted Backstage vs managed options, and how teams should think about adoption, data models, and time to value.

The bigger theme is the one I found most interesting: IDPs may be shifting away from dashboard-heavy “single pane of glass” thinking and toward becoming context layers for workflows, terminals, and eventually agents.

Highlights

• The difference between an internal developer platform and an internal developer portal

• The three common IDP problem areas: discoverability, automation, and guardrails

• Why discoverability is usually the first pain teams feel

• Why adoption is often more of a human problem than a technical one

• Catalog completeness vs team ownership

• Why a lot of teams should start with automation first

• Self-hosted Backstage vs SaaS tradeoffs: extensibility, control, lock-in, and time to value

• Why IDPs may move from dashboards to context delivery for humans and agents

• Why AI helps teams build faster, but does not solve the problem of building the right thing

• David’s advice for platform and DevEx teams: talk to your internal users first

David’s links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidtuite/

Roadie / Backstage

• Roadie: https://roadie.io/

• Backstage: https://backstage.io/

Stuff mentioned

• Workday

• Backstage

• GitHub

• GitLab

• Bitbucket

• Azure DevOps

• Argo CD

• LaunchDarkly

• CircleCI

• DORA metrics

• MCP-style context for agents

Our links

More episodes + show notes + links: https://shipitweekly.fm

On Call Brief: https://oncallbrief.com

This episode of Ship It Weekly is about the quiet platform work that keeps things safe before they break. Brian covers GitHub Actions hardening in Kubernetes-related repos, Airbnb’s safer config rollouts, Cloudflare’s zero-downtime Rust restarts, Amazon ECS Managed Daemons, and HCP Terraform access controls with IP allow lists and temporary AWS permission delegation.

Links

GitHub Actions security roadmap

https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/whats-coming-to-our-github-actions-2026-security-roadmap/

Airbnb config rollouts

https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/safeguarding-dynamic-configuration-changes-at-scale-5aca5222ed68

Cloudflare graceful restarts for Rust

https://blog.cloudflare.com/ecdysis-rust-graceful-restarts/

Amazon ECS Managed Daemons

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/04/amazon-ecs-managed-daemons/

HCP Terraform IP allow lists

https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hcp-terraform-adds-ip-allow-list-for-terraform-resources

HCP Terraform AWS permission delegation

https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/aws-permission-delegation-now-generally-available-in-hcp-terraform

GitHub secret scanning updates

https://github.blog/changelog/2026-03-10-secret-scanning-pattern-updates-march-2026/

GitHub secret scanning for AI coding agents

https://github.blog/changelog/2026-03-31-secret-scanning-extends-to-ai-coding-agents-via-the-github-mcp-server/

Codespaces GA with data residency

https://github.blog/changelog/2026-04-01-codespaces-is-now-generally-available-for-github-enterprise-with-data-residency

Kubernetes v1.36 sneak peek

https://kubernetes.io/blog/2026/03/30/kubernetes-v1-36-sneak-peek/

GKE Inference Gateway

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/about-gke-inference-gateway

More episodes and show notes

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On Call Briefs

https://oncallbrief.com

This episode of Ship It Weekly is about the places where convenience quietly turns into trust.

Brian revisits the Trivy story by zooming out to the bigger hackerbot-claw GitHub Actions campaign, then gets into the Xygeni tag-poisoning compromise, GitHub’s search high availability rebuild for GitHub Enterprise Server, Windows Server 2025 surfacing duplicate SID problems in cloned images, and the agent-skills ecosystem replaying package supply chain history. Plus: a quick lightning round on GitHub pausing self-hosted runner minimum-version enforcement and March secret scanning updates.

Links

OpenSSF advisory on active GitHub Actions exploitation https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2026/q1/246

Xygeni action compromise via tag poisoning https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/xygeni-action-compromised-c2-reverse-shell-backdoor-injected-via-tag-poisoning

GitHub Enterprise Server search high availability rebuild https://github.blog/engineering/architecture-optimization/how-we-rebuilt-the-search-architecture-for-high-availability-in-github-enterprise-server/

Microsoft on duplicate SIDs and nongeneralized Windows Server 2025 images https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/exchange/administration/exchange-server-issues-on-incorrect-windows-server-image

Socket on supply chain security for skills.sh https://socket.dev/blog/socket-brings-supply-chain-security-to-skills

Snyk ToxicSkills research https://snyk.io/blog/toxicskills-malicious-ai-agent-skills-clawhub/

GitHub self-hosted runner minimum version enforcement paused https://github.blog/changelog/2026-03-13-self-hosted-runner-minimum-version-enforcement-paused/

GitHub secret scanning pattern updates, March 2026 https://github.blog/changelog/2026-03-10-secret-scanning-pattern-updates-march-2026/

More episodes and show notes at https://shipitweekly.fm

On Call Briefs at https://oncallbrief.com

This is a guest conversation episode of Ship It Weekly, separate from the weekly news recaps.

In this Ship It: Conversations episode, I talk with Ang Chen from the University of Michigan about Project Vera, a cloud emulator built to help teams test infrastructure changes more safely before they touch real cloud.

We talk about why testing against real cloud APIs is slow, expensive, and risky, how Vera works under tools like Terraform and CloudFormation, what “high fidelity” actually means, and where a tool like this could fit in local dev and CI/CD.

The bigger theme is one I think matters a lot: if AI is going to play a real role in cloud operations, it probably needs a sandbox first, not direct access to production.

Note

This interview was recorded on February 13, 2026. Since then, Vera’s public project materials have expanded the framing a bit further around multi-cloud support and safe environments for agent learning, so keep that in mind while listening.

Highlights

• Why real cloud testing still creates cost, delay, and risk

• How Vera emulates cloud behavior at the API layer

• Where this could help with Terraform, CloudFormation, and CI/CD workflows

• Why “useful enough to catch real mistakes” may matter more than perfect emulation

• The limits, tradeoffs, and fidelity questions that still need to be solved

• Why safe training grounds may matter before AI agents touch real infrastructure

Ang’s links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ang-chen-8b877a17/

• University of Michigan profile: https://eecs.engin.umich.edu/people/chen-ang/

• Publications: https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~chenang/pubs.html

Project Vera

• Project site: https://project-vera.github.io/

• GitHub: https://github.com/project-vera/vera

• The quest for AI Agents as DevOps: https://project-vera.github.io/blogs/cloudagent/cloudagent/

• No More Manual Mocks: https://project-vera.github.io/blogs/cloudemu/cloudemu/

Stuff mentioned

• A Case for Learned Cloud Emulators: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3718958.3754799

• Cloud Infrastructure Management in the Age of AI Agents: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3759441.3759443

• LocalStack: https://www.localstack.cloud/

Our links

More episodes + show notes + links: https://shipitweekly.fm

On Call Brief: https://oncallbrief.com

This week on Ship It Weekly, Brian looks at what happens when new interfaces create old responsibilities.

McKinsey patched a vulnerability in its internal AI tool Lilli, Kafka contributors are pushing a diskless-topics model that rethinks durability and replication in cloud environments, and Google officially closed Wiz acquisition in one of the biggest cloud-security moves. Plus: AWS is sunsetting Copilot CLI, Kubernetes launches an AI Gateway Working Group.

Links

McKinsey statement on Lilli

https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/media/statement-on-strengthening-safeguards-within-the-lilli-tool

Kafka diskless topics proposal

https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/The%2BPath%2BForward%2Bfor%2BSaving%2BCross-AZ%2BReplication%2BCosts%2BKIPs

Google completes acquisition of Wiz

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/infrastructure-and-cloud/google-cloud/wiz-acquisition/

AWS Copilot CLI end-of-support

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/containers/announcing-the-end-of-support-for-the-aws-copilot-cli/

Kubernetes AI Gateway Working Group

https://kubernetes.io/blog/2026/03/09/announcing-ai-gateway-wg/

Amazon Bedrock observability for first-token latency and quota consumption

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/03/amazon-bedrock-observability-ttft-quota/

Cloudflare JSON responses and RFC 9457 support for 1xxx errors

https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-03-11-json-rfc9457-responses-for-1xxx-errors/

Amazon S3 source-region information in server access logs

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/02/amazon-s3-source-region-information/

AWS Config adds 30 new resource types

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/03/aws-config-new-resource-types/

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime stateful MCP server features

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/03/amazon-bedrock-agentcore-runtime-stateful-mcp/

More episodes and show notes at

https://shipitweekly.fm

On Call Briefs at

https://oncallbrief.com

This week on Ship It Weekly, Brian covers five “AI meets reality” stories that every DevOps, SRE, security, and platform team can learn from.

Block’s AI layoff story is getting messier as follow-up reporting pushes back on the original framing, Meta bought Moltbook and brought more attention to the trust and security problems already showing up around AI-agent platforms, and Atlassian cut about 10% of its workforce while saying AI is changing the skills and roles it needs. Plus: GitHub gives one of the more honest outage breakdowns we’ve seen lately, Anthropic and Mozilla show a more grounded AI use case with Claude finding real Firefox bugs, and there’s a quick lightning round on Bedrock AgentCore policy, Dependabot for pre-commit hooks, and Cloudflare’s latest threat report.

Links

Block layoffs follow-up

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/08/block-ai-layoffs-jack-dorsey

Meta acquires Moltbook

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/10/meta-acquires-moltbook-ai-agent-social-network

Wiz on Moltbook exposure

https://www.wiz.io/blog/exposed-moltbook-database-reveals-millions-of-api-keys

Atlassian team update

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/atlassian-team-update-march-2026

GitHub availability issues write-up

https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/addressing-githubs-recent-availability-issues-2/

Anthropic + Mozilla Firefox security

https://www.anthropic.com/news/mozilla-firefox-security

Anthropic labor market report

https://www.anthropic.com/research/labor-market-impacts

AWS Bedrock AgentCore Policy GA

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/03/policy-amazon-bedrock-agentcore-generally-available/

GitHub Dependabot support for pre-commit hooks

https://github.blog/changelog/2026-03-10-dependabot-now-supports-pre-commit-hooks/

Cloudflare 2026 Threat Report

https://blog.cloudflare.com/2026-threat-report/

More episodes and show notes at

https://shipitweekly.fm

On Call Briefs at:

https://oncallbrief.com

This is a guest conversation episode of Ship It Weekly (separate from the weekly news recaps).

In this Ship It: Conversations episode I talk with Yvonne Young, a cloud and Linux mentor active in the CloudWhistler community. We talk about the real path into cloud and DevOps, why Linux still matters as a foundation, what “job ready” actually means, and why focus, consistency, and business thinking matter more than chasing every new tool.

Highlights

• Linux fundamentals still matter because so much of cloud and infra work sits on top of Linux
• What “job ready” really means: prepare for both technical and behavioral interviews, know the basics, and show how you learn when you don’t know something
• Why so many juniors stall out by trying to learn everything instead of picking a direction
• Why daily reps beat cramming: short, consistent practice keeps skills fresh better than marathon study sessions
• How Yvonne thinks about certifications, including why hands-on certs like RHCSA stand out
• Hands-on practice ideas: break things on purpose, troubleshoot, fix services, inspect ports, and use the help files
• Why tools matter less than the business problem they solve
• Using Vault as an example of solving real issues like secret sprawl, rotation, and centralized access
• How to think about cloud learning: pick one provider, learn the concepts, and map your path to the kinds of companies you want to work for
• Why mentorship and community matter, especially for juniors trying not to waste time or head in the wrong direction
• What seniors can do better: better onboarding, real availability, and giving juniors an actual lifeline when they get stuck

Yvonne’s links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonne-young

Stuff mentioned

• Ali Sohail on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisohailit/
• Tech With Engineers on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/tech-with-engineers
• CloudWhistler community / training: training.cloudwhistler.com
• Vault: https://www.hashicorp.com/en/products/vault
• OpenBao: https://openbao.org/

More episodes + details: https://shipitweekly.fm

This week on Ship It Weekly, Brian looks at how the boundary of ops keeps expanding.

We cover AWS flagging issues in Bahrain/UAE amid Iran strikes, ArgoCD vs Flux and why ArgoCD can get stuck in failed sync states, GitHub Actions being exploited at scale (plus Trivy’s incident), RoguePilot prompt injection meeting real credentials in Codespaces, Block’s “AI remake” layoffs, and Anthropic’s Claude Code Security for defenders.

Lightning round: DeepSeek model access geopolitics, Vercel’s agentic security boundaries, a KEV CVE to patch, an MCP-atlassian SSRF-to-RCE chain, and Claude Cowork scheduled tasks.

Links

AWS Bahrain/UAE (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/amazon-cloud-unit-flags-issues-bahrain-uae-data-centers-amid-iran-strikes-2026-03-02/

ArgoCD to Flux https://hai.wxs.ro/migrations/argocd-to-flux/

GitHub Actions exploitation https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/hackerbot-claw-github-actions-exploitation

Trivy incident https://github.com/aquasecurity/trivy/discussions/10265

RoguePilot https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/roguepilot-flaw-in-github-codespaces.html

Block layoffs (WSJ) https://www.wsj.com/business/jack-dorseys-block-to-lay-off-4-000-employees-in-ai-remake-28f0d869

Claude Code Security https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-code-security

DeepSeek (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/world/china/deepseek-withholds-latest-ai-model-us-chipmakers-including-nvidia-sources-say-2026-02-25/

Agentic boundaries https://vercel.com/blog/security-boundaries-in-agentic-architectures

CISA KEV https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2026/03/03/cisa-adds-two-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog

mcp-atlassian CVE https://arcticwolf.com/resources/blog-uk/cve-2026-27825-critical-unauthenticated-rce-and-ssrf-in-mcp-atlassian/

Claude Cowork tasks https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-cowork

More: https://shipitweekly.fm