Compound Engineering
The unit of value is not the completed task; it is accumulated capability.
In one sentence
A philosophy that every task should leave the system permanently better: when solving a problem, the agent also updates docs, creates a skill, and adds a test. The work compounds like interest, and what gets measured is accumulated capability, more than the delivered task.
Before
Problem solved and closed
What it does
Solve + leave behind a test, doc, and skill
After
Permanent accumulated capability
Example
A sponsor received a letter with the wrong name. In addition to fixing the letter, the correction was added as a case in the golden dataset, a criterion in the suite, a line in the skill, and a note in the ontology about homonyms. With an extra half hour of work, the same error became impossible.
The common mistake
Closing the ticket when the symptom disappears. If the fix left nothing behind (test, doc, skill, case in the answer key), the system went right back to what it was, and the error will reappear in another form.
In practice
- Have an explicit closing rule: nothing ends without leaving behind a test, documentation, or skill.
- The measure is absence: has the same type of error stopped reappearing?
- It costs about 20% more per task and pays that back the third time the problem doesn’t come back.
How to make it tangible
A closing rule: no task ends without leaving behind a test, documentation, or updated skill.
Connects with
Translated from Portuguese with AI assistance.