If you are doing spec-driven development, add this to your AGENTS.md file: #AI #Claude #ChatGPT #Copilot #Gemini

The state of legacy systems is one of the most critical technology challenges facing governments around the world today. I've worked for over 20 years in different government agencies, and everywhere I went, the struggle was the same. 1/2

Feels good to hold it in my hand.

Happy New Year! I'm excited to share something I've been working on for a while: my new book on modernizing legacy technology systems with #AI. www.amazon.com/dp/B0GFGTK6TG

Love this new project for spec-driven development (SDD). Not only because it makes working with #AI tools more logical and efficient, but because it enables developers and teams to treat the specification as the source of truth on system behavior, not the implemented code. github.com/Fission-AI/O...

Here's my enormous round-up of everything we learned about LLMs in 2025 - the third in my annual series of reviews of the past twelve months simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/... This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:

I wrote about 10 things Mamdani's incoming administration can do to transform how the city delivers to ensure his agenda becomes a reality. open.substack.com/pub/publicse...

Do you want to learn how to modernize legacy technology systems with simple hands-on training? Well, Happy Holidays, because I have a gift for you. 🎄🕎 1/4

I ❤️ Philly. #CivicHacking capitol of the world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD6N...

Fragments: Illustrated guide to mainframe modernization, what the second value of code reviews means for LLMs, LLMs write and then port an HTML parser martinfowler.com/fragments/20...

OpenAI aren't talking about it yet, but it turns out they've adopted Anthropic's brilliant "skills" mechanism in a big way Skills are now live in both ChatGPT and their Codex CLI tool, I wrote up some detailed notes on how they work so far here: simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/12/...

Most legacy government systems exist in a state of profound documentation poverty. The biggest potential value of using #AI to improve legacy systems will come not from transforming old software code into new software code but from compiling the knowledge of how a system actually works. spec-ops.ai

If you're interested in spec-driven development with #AI coding assistants, here is a brand new GitHub action just published to the marketplace. github.com/marketplace/...

If you're interested in spec-driven development with #AI coding assistants, here is a brand new GitHub action just published to the marketplace. github.com/marketplace/...

This is worth your time to read. One thing some of the language in here reminds me of strongly is the idea of just-in-time interfaces, enabled by new AI tools. signalpath.substack.com/p/just-in-ti...

Let's build hyper-personalized AI-powered software that avoids the attention hijacking anti-patterns that defined so much of the last decade of software design - here's our manifesto with principles on how we can do that - more thoughts on my blog: simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/5/r...

Results of an experiment I ran recently to test out a new approach to legacy system modernization. I'm really excited by the results, and more convinced than ever that this approach has tremendous potential for governments struggling with outdated systems. civic.io/2025/12/04/p... #CivicTech #AI

This is the most 2025 headline of all time. Imagine trying to explain this to someone living 10 years ago. www.wired.com/story/poems-...

hi friends, I’m so thrilled @publicgood.tech is on BlueSky! I've been a board member since 2021 & I care deeply about this org: the only one dedicated to supporting the people who do the very hard work of civic tech Heads-up: I’m asking for donations give.socialgoodfund.org/t4pg-fund?re...

There is such a thirst in some progressive centrist circles that they will look at the Trump administration as a model to get things done. I think its worth addressing the argument. This is from Mark Dunkelman, author of the widely praised "Why Nothing Works." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/o...

A thing I have come to appreciate about AI coding assistants is their high level of git-literacy. Git is notoriously user unfriendly and - frankly - scary at times. If you've ever felt a tinge of fear when using a "detached HEAD" or done a "git reset --hard" you'll come to appreciate their abilities

🎁 Today is Giving Tuesday—a day to invest in the future we want to see. Your support = more mentorship, more convenings, more impact. give.socialgoodfund.org/t4pg-fund #GivingTuesday #CivicTech #PublicGood

At the risk of starting the flame war to end all flame wars... Modern LLMs (GPT-5.1, Claude 4.5, Gemini 3) produce excellent code and can be a significant productivity boost to software engineers who take the time to learn how to effectively apply them - especially if used with coding agent tools

Government legacy systems hold decades of institutional knowledge that disappears when we focus only on translating old code to new code. I've been developing SpecOps: a methodology that uses AI to extract that knowledge into plain-language specifications that policy experts can actually verify. 1/2

I love this line. It's so true it hurts. "Few IT projects are displays of rational decision-making from which AI can or should learn. " spectrum.ieee.org/it-managemen...

Frontend is failing. 75% of devices with browsers are smartphones, but not even half of sites pass Core Web Vitals on them. Why not? Too much JavaScript, added to indulge SPA fantasies the data is falsifying in real time: infrequently.org/2025/11/perf...

As an example of how we are building on top of Gemini 3, AI Mode in Search now uses Gemini 3 to enable new generative UI experiences, all generated completely on the fly based on your query. Here’s how you might use this to learn a complex topic like how RNA polymerase works.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how legacy system modernization gets done in government, and about how new AI tools and development approaches can dramatically change the way we've approached this challenge in the past. spec-ops.ai

I wrote about what @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social’s administration can do starting Day 1 to make sure NYC’s civil service and hiring system can help deliver for New Yorkers. #PublicSectorJobBoard open.substack.com/pub/publicse...

#AI coding agent instructions have evolved from simple markdown files to sophisticated orchestration frameworks in just a few. For governments, this rapid maturation offers new opportunities for collaboration that traditional code sharing never achieved. civic.io/2025/11/04/i...

Infrastructure as Code for #AI: The Rapid Evolution of Coding Agent Instructions. www.linkedin.com/pulse/infras...

Well played, @github.com. Well played. 🎃

This month’s Digital Benefits in the News starts with journalism telling the stories of those impacted by the federal shutdown disruption in SNAP and WIC. Thank you to our community for all their work. ➡️ Read our full newsletter here beeckcenter.org/4nrSKuq

Tired: I can use AI to write software code for me. Wired: I can use AI to improve my software code and make it more compliant with security requirements. Inspired: I can use AI to ensure my code is compliant with security requirements from jump. mheadd.github.io/atlas-ato-ac...

Do you want to spend your Sunday afternoon deploying a containerized application to a local Kubernetes cluster with NIST 800-53 compliant Terraform files & then auto generate compliance documentation using an AI assistant? I got you. mheadd.github.io/atlas-ato-ac... #AI #ChatGPT #Claude #Copilot

With its fusion of funk, jazz, Afrobeats and R&B, the British band conveys a radical mission to choose joy. n.pr/4hfnhtW

What if I told you that someday, maybe someday soon, web forms will become a legacy method for interacting with government agencies. #CivicTech delegation.design

How organized are your thoughts? How well can you articulate what you want to do? How clear is your vision for what you are trying to build? In the future, these are the things that will separate the good software developers from the not so good ones. github.blog/ai-and-ml/ge...

Designing for delegation: How agentic digital services could transform interactions with government. adhoc.team/2025/10/01/d... #AI #Agent #ChatGPT #ServiceDesign #DigitalServices

Young people are reading less: literacytrust.org.uk/research-ser... Also, reading and math scores for U.S. students continue to decline: apnews.com/article/naep...

A beautiful stormbeach Goniatite fossil, polished by Atlantic waves. County Clare, Ireland.

Here. Please have a poem. I think it's lovely.

Exciting to see the rollout of USAi.gov. GSA is already home to existing shared services like cloud.gov and Login.gov that agencies can use to accelerate development of digital services, so it makes sense to add this new shared service to the portfolio there.

Its been a minute (as the kids say) but there was a time in my life when I was almost exclusively focused on voice and telephony applications. I even wrote a blog for years in the aughts and early teens focused on telephony, speech recognition, and messaging apps for government. voiceingov.org

No better welcome to a new member joining your team than an organized, properly refined backlog so that they can jump in and start contributing. Just like good documentation is a love note to your future self, a well maintained backlog is a welcome card to your new teammate.

My friend @danmunz.bsky.social and I wrote a post about something we've been thinking about for a while - how AI will change the way people interact with governments, and also how it will change our work as civic technologists. It's the end of civic tech's "interface era." danmu.nz/blog/the-end...

A few thoughts on Hierarchical Reasoning Models, an LLM-alternative we should be paying attention to, especially the civic tech world: danmu.nz/blog/ai-thin...

One thing that stands out in the recently issued federal AI Action Plan is the emphasis on open source AI model use. But how do government agencies actually implement these systems in ways that meet their specific needs? This post I wrote explores two key approaches. www.linkedin.com/pulse/open-s...

New blog post: The Quiet Crisis in Legacy System Modernization. civic.io/2025/06/17/t...

Super important & timely analysis from MITRE regarding using LLMs to drive legacy system modernization for mission critical government systems. Huge potential, & (based on my personal experience) huge need, but they are not a panacea to the challenges governments face. www.mitre.org/sites/defaul...