Independent notes on engineering, systems, and product craft.https://ikbalturgut.fyi/en-ushttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/reproducible-conversion-data/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/reproducible-conversion-data/Build reliable conversion data with clear event contracts, stable IDs, observable deduplication, and end-to-end validation.Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTdata systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/ai-pull-request-approval/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/ai-pull-request-approval/What AI pull request approval changes about governance, ownership, permissions, evidence, and safe software delivery.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI governancehttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/aspnet-core-scalable-backends/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/aspnet-core-scalable-backends/Learn how to scale ASP.NET Core backends with explicit boundaries, caching, database discipline, timeouts, retries, and observable failure handling.Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTbackend systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/latency-is-a-design-tool/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/latency-is-a-design-tool/The 200ms budget is not only an SRE metric; it shapes what the interface can promise and when it should ask the user to wait.Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTprinciplehttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/ai-assisted-code-analysis/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/ai-assisted-code-analysis/Design AI-assisted code analysis with repository scope, evidence links, calibrated confidence, reproducible results, and human review.Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/names-are-part-of-system-design/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/names-are-part-of-system-design/A system is only as clear as its worst name. Renaming is refactoring, and the cost of postponing it compounds across every boundary.Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTprinciplehttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/clickhouse-real-time-analytics/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/clickhouse-real-time-analytics/Design ClickHouse real-time analytics with event schemas, tenant scope, query performance, aggregation, freshness, and late-event handling.Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTdata systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/reliable-ai-agents/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/reliable-ai-agents/Design reliable AI agents with tool contracts, durable state, idempotency, approvals, loop prevention, recovery, and observability.Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/stream-the-rows/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/stream-the-rows/Replacing pagination with streamed rows was not only a speed experiment; it changed how people scanned, paused, and trusted the data table.Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTexperimenthttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/reversible-migrations/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/reversible-migrations/Design reversible database migrations with expand-migrate-contract, safe backfills, compatibility windows, rollback plans, and observability.Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTbackend systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/long-context-understanding/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/long-context-understanding/Understand why long context fails: context dilution, irrelevant retrieval, ordering, chunking, provenance, and context budgeting.Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/cache-bugs-are-invalidation-bugs/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/cache-bugs-are-invalidation-bugs/A cache can make a correct answer fast, but it cannot decide by itself when that answer stopped being true.Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTbookmarkhttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/model-routing-cost-optimization/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/model-routing-cost-optimization/Optimize LLM model routing with workload classes, quality gates, fallback, caching, latency budgets, and cost observability.Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI systemshttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/dashboard-performance/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/dashboard-performance/Improve dashboard performance through useful paint, data readiness, stable loading states, efficient queries, caching, and honest freshness.Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTperformancehttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/boring-infrastructure/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/boring-infrastructure/The exciting parts of a stack are rarely where the product creates value; dependable infrastructure gives the team room to make the product distinctive.Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTprinciplehttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/ai-assisted-developer-tools/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/ai-assisted-developer-tools/Build trustworthy AI developer tools with bounded tasks, evidence, structured output, privacy controls, evaluation, and human review.Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTdeveloper experiencehttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/migrations-need-a-road-back/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/notes/migrations-need-a-road-back/Writing the reverse path forces a team to understand compatibility, information loss, and the data that must survive a failed release.Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTexperimenthttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/testing-backend-systems/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/testing-backend-systems/Design backend tests around contracts, scope boundaries, failure paths, and observable behavior instead of only testing individual methods.Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtestinghttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/observability-product-contract/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/observability-product-contract/Design observability around the decisions people need to make, connecting logs, metrics, traces, freshness, and user-visible failure states.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTobservabilityhttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/api-design-survives-change/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/api-design-survives-change/Design APIs that can evolve safely through explicit contracts, stable errors, scoped inputs, compatibility windows, and honest response states.Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAPI designhttps://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/system-boundaries-as-design/https://ikbalturgut.fyi/writing/system-boundaries-as-design/Make software systems easier to change by designing explicit boundaries for ownership, data, failure, authorization, and deployment.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTarchitecture