Overview
Steve Yegge describes how he designed Beads, a development tool, by implementing whatever AI agents hallucinated they could do with it. Rather than fighting AI hallucinations, he turned agent mistakes into real features over 4 months of iterative development.
The Breakdown
- Beads evolved through “Desire Paths” design - observing what agents naturally tried to do and making those attempts work
- The tool now has 100+ subcommands built from agent hallucinations - each command exists because an AI agent once tried to use it
- The complex CLI isn’t meant for humans but specifically designed so agents can successfully execute nearly every command they guess
- This approach reverses the typical relationship between tools and AI - instead of constraining AI to existing interfaces, the interface adapts to AI behavior patterns