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Insights, analysis, and updates from the AI agent economy. Browse by tag · Browse the archive.
Dedicated vs VPS for AI Agents: 64 GB of Exclusive RAM for $57/Month Changes the Hosting Math
osModa's 2026 comparison prices a Hetzner AX42 dedicated box with 64 GB of exclusive RAM at ~$57/month against a 16 GB shared VPS at ~$80. This post reproduces the $/GB math, works out the bin-packing crossover for fleet operators, and shows why the dedicated-vs-VPS line lands differently for agents than for web services.
One API Key vs 7,000 Tools: Where a Self-Hosted PaaS's MCP Server Should Land
A homelab MCP bridge runs your infrastructure behind one API token; Arcade's engine vaults per-user OAuth behind 7,000 tools. The head-to-head operator math at three team sizes, and where a self-hosted PaaS should land between them.
A Community List Calls Render the Closest Heroku Replacement: What Crowdsourced Exit Advice Gets Right That Vendor Guides Don't
A community-maintained GitHub list names Render the closest one-to-one Heroku replacement — no vendor paid for that ranking. Where its map agrees with vendor guides, where it diverges, and the four format choices every migration guide should steal.
Canine vs Coolify vs Dokploy: What the awesome-paas List Doesn't Tell You About the Second Machine
The awesome-paas list puts forty self-hosted platforms in one flat section with no signal about which survive a second machine. A taxonomy of the three architectures underneath — single-box Docker, Swarm multi-server, and attach-to-Kubernetes — worked through Canine, Coolify, and Dokploy.
Twelve Rogue Certificates for 1.1.1.1: CAA + accounturi Pinning for Tenant Custom Domains
A CA issued twelve unauthorized certificates for 1.1.1.1 over nineteen months before anyone noticed. The three-line CAA record set that pins a custom domain to one ACME account, the threat model each line covers, and the renewal gotchas to clear before the March 2027 mandate.
Two-Thirds of Platform Teams Run Backstage: What a Golden-Path IDP Actually Costs to Self-Host vs Renting Port or Cortex
Self-hosting Backstage costs roughly $95,000 a year at 20 developers against about $6,000 for Port or Cortex — yet two-thirds of platform teams still run it. A line-by-line cost model, the crossover math, and a team-size decision rule.
Anthropic Split the Agent's Brain From Its Hands: Why Infrastructure Is Now the Bottleneck
Anthropic's Managed Agents architecture splits every agent into a stateless brain, disposable sandbox hands, and a durable session log — and the hands are yours to own. A concrete mapping of who runs what, the per-second cost math of managed sandboxes versus owned machines, and the five-item checklist a real execution layer must satisfy.
The Agent That Burned $4,200 in 63 Hours: What a Deploy/Rollback MCP Server Needs for Spend Circuit Breakers
A $4,200 weekend bill with no ceiling in the loop is the shape of every 2026 agent-cost incident — here is the five-layer circuit-breaker design, from server-side spend ledgers to namespace quotas and a kill switch, that stops the next one.
Your PaaS Bill Lied to You: Run a Bill-Forensics Audit Before You Migrate
A developer budgeted $20 and opened a $286 PaaS bill. This six-step bill-forensics checklist audits Railway, Render, Fly.io, and Vercel invoices line by line — new-since-signup charges, usage-scaled meters, seat math — before you decide to migrate or self-host.
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