IT Solutions Architect · Montréal
Julien Riel
Close to twenty years building web applications. Since 2023, I've been exploring what AI agents change about how we write software — and writing down what I learn along the way.
IT solutions architect at the City of Montréal, based in Longueuil, Québec. First document management and publishing Québec's legal texts at Irosoft, then six years in asset and wealth management at Desjardins, and since 2017 the City's application portfolio. Trained at UQAM in computer science and software engineering.
Twenty years means I've seen enough technologies come and go to be wary of hype cycles. What's happening with AI agents is different. This isn't another framework — it's a shift in how we write software, in what counts as "working," in what can be delegated and to whom.
This site is written in collaboration with Claude (Anthropic) — which is itself a demonstration of the subject. The ideas, the editorial decisions, and the arc of each piece come from me. The drafting, the debugging, and the iteration happen in pair with the agent.
Explore
97 Things Every Agentic Programmer Should Know The collection I wish I'd read two years ago: short, concrete essays drawn from what breaks in production. A nod to O'Reilly's 97 Things format — each built around a single idea, with no required reading order.Articles
In-depth technical guides on RAG, evaluations, prompting, and multi-agent architectures
Case Studies
Detailed analyses of WHOOP Coach, Cursor, Duolingo, and Klarna — successes, transformations, and instructive failures
Glossary
Eighty-seven AI terms defined in English and French — from weights to harness, from GPUs to gateways — each with a source to go deeper
Reading Guide
Four suggested reading paths depending on where you are — daily user, builder, or decision-maker
My Projects
Small tools built with agentic programming, usable right in the browser — like the deck planner