unravel-dispatch-summer-2026

v8 → v9 · +150 −136 · View latest

<title>Unravel — Summer 2026 Dispatch</title>
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<button class="theme-toggle" id="tt" aria-label="Toggle colour theme">◐</button>
<div class="term">
  <div class="term-bar">
    <span class="d d1"></span><span class="d d2"></span><span class="d d3"></span>
    <span class="ttl">the-dispatch — summer 2026 — unravel</span>
  </div>
  <div class="term-body">
<div class="page">
<div class="wrap">
    <p class="cmd"><span class="pr">unravel@dispatch</span> ~ % cat <span class="fl">q3-2026.md</span></p>
  <header class="mast">
    <div class="brand"><span class="mk"></span>Unravel</div>
    <div class="meta">The Dispatch · Summer 2026</div>
  </header>
    <h1 class="t-h1"><span class="hash"># </span>A production engine, rebuilt in <span class="hl">two weeks</span>.</h1>
    <p class="t-sub">The quarter in one screen: proof we ship fast, plus a few things you can use whether or not you ever hire us.</p>
  <div class="hero">
    <h1>A production engine, rebuilt in two weeks.</h1>
    <p class="sub">The quarter in one read: proof we ship fast, and a few things worth keeping whether or not you ever hire us.</p>
  </div>
    <div class="sec">
      <p class="sech">at_a_glance</p>
      <div class="rows">
        <div class="row"><span class="k">time to ship</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="v">2 weeks</span></div>
        <div class="row"><span class="k">reverts after cutover</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="v">0 <span class="was">(was 28)</span></span></div>
        <div class="row"><span class="k">less code, larger API</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="v">~50%</span></div>
        <div class="row"><span class="k">shipped to prod, Jun–Aug</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="v">116</span></div>
        <div class="row"><span class="k">team grew this year</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="v">15 → 20</span></div>
      </div>
  <section class="sec">
    <h2>The rebuild</h2>
    <div class="figures">
      <div class="fig"><b>2 weeks</b><span>Java → Python rebuild, start to cutover</span></div>
      <div class="fig"><b>0</b><span>rollbacks after launch</span></div>
      <div class="fig"><b>~50%</b><span>less code, larger API surface</span></div>
    </div>
    <p class="lede">A client's AI music-video engine had outgrown its first codebase. Reverts were frequent and the mobile apps broke in ways nobody caught until users did.</p>
    <p>We rebuilt it from Java to Python, contract-first and verified against the real mobile clients before a line shipped, then cut over in <em class="k">two weeks</em> with nothing rolled back. If your AI product has outgrown its first codebase and now costs you speed, that is the work we do.</p>
    <p class="note">Across the quarter we shipped 116 updates to production and grew the team from 15 to 20.</p>
  </section>
    <div class="sec">
      <p class="sech">case_study</p>
      <p>A client's AI music-video engine, written in Java, had grown brittle: frequent reverts and mobile apps breaking in production. We rebuilt it in Python, contract-first and verified against the real clients, and shipped the cutover in <span class="hl">two weeks</span> with nothing rolled back.</p>
      <p class="dim">if your AI product outgrew its code and now costs you speed, this is the work we do.</p>
  <section class="sec">
    <h2>Worth reading</h2>
    <div class="rows">
      <a class="link-row" href="https://usething.ai/unravel/prompt-caching-and-how-to-think-about-it">
        <span class="lr-main"><span class="lr-title">Prompt caching, and how to think about it</span><span class="lr-desc">Where caching saves real money and latency with large models, and where it quietly does not.</span></span>
        <span class="chev">→</span>
      </a>
      <a class="link-row" href="https://usething.ai/unravel/eval-metrics">
        <span class="lr-main"><span class="lr-title">The metrics we judge AI output by</span><span class="lr-desc">How we measure whether a model's output is good, and keep our evals honest as the product changes.</span></span>
        <span class="chev">→</span>
      </a>
      <a class="link-row" href="https://usething.ai/unravel/migration-work">
        <span class="lr-main"><span class="lr-title">How we run a big migration without regret</span><span class="lr-desc">The questions we answer before a rewrite, so it ships in weeks instead of stalling for a year.</span></span>
        <span class="chev">→</span>
      </a>
    </div>
  </section>
    <div class="sec">
      <p class="sech">notebook <span class="dim">— free to read, useful even if you never hire us</span></p>
      <a class="ln" href="https://usething.ai/unravel/prompt-caching-and-how-to-think-about-it"><span class="b">- </span>Prompt caching, and how to think about it<span class="ar">→</span></a>
      <a class="ln" href="https://usething.ai/unravel/eval-metrics"><span class="b">- </span>The metrics we judge AI output by<span class="ar">→</span></a>
      <a class="ln" href="https://usething.ai/unravel/migration-work"><span class="b">- </span>How we run a big migration without regret<span class="ar">→</span></a>
    </div>
  <section class="sec">
    <h2>What we make</h2>
    <a class="prod-row" href="https://steno.unravel.tech"><span class="pn">Steno</span><span class="pd">Meeting notes that write themselves, clean and searchable when the call ends.</span><span class="pv">steno.unravel.tech ↗</span></a>
    <a class="prod-row" href="https://usething.ai"><span class="pn">thing</span><span class="pd">Ship your coding agents' output as live, commentable, versioned pages. This letter runs on it.</span><span class="pv">usething.ai ↗</span></a>
    <a class="prod-row" href="https://tablo.unravel.tech"><span class="pn">Tablo</span><span class="pd">A tiny companion that watches your AI coding agents from a corner of the screen.</span><span class="pv">tablo.unravel.tech ↗</span></a>
  </section>
    <div class="sec">
      <p class="sech">products <span class="dim">— we ship our own, too</span></p>
      <a class="prow" href="https://steno.unravel.tech"><span class="pn">steno</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="pd">meeting notes, written for you</span></a>
      <a class="prow" href="https://usething.ai"><span class="pn">thing</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="pd">ship agent output as live pages</span></a>
      <a class="prow" href="https://tablo.unravel.tech"><span class="pn">tablo</span><span class="dots"></span><span class="pd">a cat that watches your agents</span></a>
    </div>
  <div class="cta">
    <h3>Weighing a rebuild?</h3>
    <p>Thirty minutes, and we'll tell you straight whether it's worth doing, what it would take, and how fast we could do it.</p>
    <a class="btn" href="https://unravel.tech/call">Book a call</a>
    <span class="reply">or reply to this email — it reaches us directly at <a href="mailto:kapil@unravel.tech">kapil@unravel.tech</a></span>
  </div>
    <div class="sec">
      <p class="sech">lets_talk</p>
      <p>Weighing a rebuild? Thirty minutes, and we tell you straight whether it is worth doing, what it would take, and how fast we could do it.</p>
      <p class="cta-run"><span class="pr">%</span> book-a-call<span class="cursor" aria-hidden="true"></span></p>
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      <p class="cta-alt">or reply to this email — it reaches us directly. <a href="mailto:kapil@unravel.tech">kapil@unravel.tech</a></p>
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