How to Build an Agent in JavaScript
As engineers, it is hard (and arguably unwise) to trust "magic". What then should we do when our industry is flooded with "magical" new tools that promise to change the game?
The best way to see through a magic trick is to learn to do it yourself!
Based on the seminal blog post by Thorsten Ball from Amp, "How to Build an Agent, or: The Emperor Has No Clothes" (https://ampcode.com/how-to-build-an-agent), this talk will dispel the illusion of magic surrounding agent-powered code editors like Amp, Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, and Zed. Together, we will build our own coding agent in only ~400 lines of not-very-exciting JavaScript, and use it to complete some realistic coding tasks.
Armed with this clear understanding of how coding agents work under the hood, you will be better able to reason about how and when to use them in your own work.
Kevin Yank
Kevin previously spent a decade teaching a generation of developers about web standards at SitePoint, where he also helped to launch success stories like 99designs and Flippa. Now, more than ten years into leading front end engineering at Culture Amp, he has the unique perspective of seeing the web industry from both sides – education and execution – and has been privileged to speak at tech conferences around the world.
On weekends he performs improvised theatre with Impro Melbourne, which is a lot more like building websites than you might expect.