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Saurabh_Kumar_ 7 days ago

Agentic QA – Open-source middleware to fuzz-test agents for loops

I built this because I watched my LangChain agent burn ~$50 in OpenAI credits overnight due to an infinite loop.

It's a middleware API that acts as a 'Flight Simulator'. You send it your agent's prompt, and it runs adversarial attacks (Red Teaming) to catch loops and PII leaks before deployment.

Code & Repo: https://github.com/Saurabh0377/agentic-qa-api Live Demo: https://agentic-qa-engine.onrender.com/docs

Would love feedback on other failure modes you've seen!

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embedding-shape 1 day ago

Ask HN: Should "I asked $AI, and it said" replies be forbidden in HN guidelines?

As various LLMs become more and more popular, so does comments with "I asked Gemini, and Gemini said ....".

While the guidelines were written (and iterated on) during a different time, it seems like it might be time to have a discussion about if those sort of comments should be welcomed on HN or not.

Some examples:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164360

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46200460

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46080064

Personally, I'm on HN for the human conversation, and large LLM-generated texts just get in the way of reading real text from real humans (assumed, at least).

What do you think? Should responses that basically boil down to "I asked $LLM about $X, and here is what $LLM said:" be allowed on HN, and the guidelines updated to state that people shouldn't critique it (similar to other guidelines currently), or should a new guideline be added to ask people from refrain from copy-pasting large LLM responses into the comments, or something else completely?

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duckkg5 about 4 hours ago

Ask HN: How do small businesses handle phone calls?

If you run or work at a small business: cell phones, landline, VoIP, or something else?

What sucks about your current setup?

What would you like to see instead?

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xrd about 4 hours ago

Ask HN: Is there a "good" (non-privacy horror) aftermarket HUD for your car?

I was surprised to see these kind of things on Amazon at $50-$100.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=android+auto+screen&i=electronics&crid=1VL1XF920KHXS&sprefix=android+auto+screen%2Celectronics%2C109&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

I have an older car (2018 Mini Countryman), and the lack of Android Auto is problematic. When I rent a car I realize how much easier life is with a fully integrated experience, especially for maps.

Are there any HUDs that people have found success with, which also respect privacy and aren't a support nightmare. I'm worried I will buy one and find out the integration is terrible, or that it is sending my data back to a Myanmar based call center.

Has anyone tried to build one using an android tablet?

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rishikeshs about 5 hours ago

Ask HN: How can I learn smartphone repair online?

Context:

I prefer smaller phones and currently use an iPhone 13 Mini which I plan on using for another 3 years. Sadly the battery keeps on dying and I'm on my second battery. I prefer repairing myself since most of the local shops provide lower quality batteries and I'm a bit paranoid of leaving phone there. My screen is also broken and also the back glass. I'm thinking of ordering few replacement parts from Aliexpress and was wondering if there are any good resources to learn other than phone specific guides on ifixit.

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mchaver about 9 hours ago

Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)

What is everyone working on?

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ftonato about 15 hours ago

Why are "remote" jobs in late 2025 still limited to hiring in US/CA/UK/DE?

Throughout 2025, I've been following job boards like YC Jobs, RemoteOK, NoDesk, WeWorkRemotely, and others. Across all of them, I keep seeing a recurring pattern:

Many companies advertise "remote" roles, but hiring is limited to the US, Canada, UK, or Germany. Sometimes they add one or two more countries, but rarely anything beyond that.

Given that it's the last quarter of 2025 and remote work is more established than ever, I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind this.

A few questions I'm hoping founders, hiring managers, or people with international hiring experience can shed light on:

- Is the main blocker regulatory complexity? (employment law, compliance, local registrations, PE risk, etc.)

- Is it primarily about taxes and payroll overhead when hiring abroad?

- Are there security or liability concerns that make certain jurisdictions easier to work with?

- Is it simply the cost of maintaining compliant employment structures worldwide, or are there deeper strategic reasons?

- And finally: Is there evidence that the value produced by strong engineers abroad doesn't offset those costs, or is the issue not economic at all?

I'm asking out of genuine curiosity, from the outside, it seems like a global talent pool should be an advantage, especially for remote-first companies. But the hiring restrictions persist, even as tools like Deel, Remote, Oyster, etc. mature.

I'd love to hear perspectives from people who have dealt with this firsthand.

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xparadigm about 9 hours ago

Ask HN: Is it still worth learning a new programming language?

I have been writing Python code for a few years now. But I feel like LLMs can write much better code than me. I used to keep myself updated with newer technology. But now I am loosing interest. I was interested in learning Rust. But I don't find any motivation now since I can just vibe code with Rust. Any thoughts in that?

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mikebiglan about 3 hours ago

2026: The Year the IDE Died (Steve Yegge and Gene Kim Talk AI Coding)

YouTube talk by Steve Yegge and Gene Kim about how AI coding tools might replace today’s IDE as the primary programming environment, and AI workflows.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dtu2bilcFs

As I'm working in this future-of-coding-tool space, what do y'all think:

– How far IDEs will really change in the next few years

– Whether we'll still be reading and reasoning about code in our daily work, or almost exclusively higher-level constructs

– What this means senior devs?

- What this means for students starting out now?

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not_that_d about 12 hours ago

Is any of you using LLMs to create full features in big enterprise apps?

Let me be clear first. I don't dislike LLMs, I query them, trigger agents to do stuff where I kind of know what the end goal is and to make analisys of small parts of an application.

That said, everytime I give it something a little more complex that do something in a single file script it fails me horribly. Either the code is really bad, or the approach is as bad a someone who doesn't really know what to do or it plains start doing things that I explicitly said not to do in the initial prompt.

I have sometimes asked my LLM fan's coworkers to come and help when that happens and they also are not able to "fix it", but somehow I am the one doing it wrong due "wrong prompt" or "lack of correct context".

I have created a lot of "Agents.md" files, drop files into the context window... Nothing.

When I need to do green field stuff, or PoCs it delivers fast, but then applying it to work inside an existent big application fails.

The only place where I feel as "productive" as I heard from other people is when I do stuff in languages or technologies I don't know at all, but then again, I also don't know if that functional code I get at the end is broken in things I am not aware of.

Are any of you guys really using LLMs to create full features in big enterprise apps?

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drdec 1 day ago

Ask HN: What are young technically minded people reading?

When I was young we read books like Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman, Neuromancer by William Gibson and So You Want to be a Mathematician by Paul Halmos. What books are popular with young technically minded people today?

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proberts 5 days ago

I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

As usual, there are countless immigration topics and I'll be guided by whatever you're concerned with. Please remember that I can't provide legal advice on specific cases for obvious liability reasons because I won't have access to all the facts. Please stick to a factual discussion in your questions and comments and I'll do the same in my answers!

Previous threads we've done: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=proberts.

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whoishiring 9 days ago

Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2025)

Share your information if you are looking for work. Please use this format:

  Location:
  Remote:
  Willing to relocate:
  Technologies:
  Résumé/CV:
  Email:
Please only post if you are personally looking for work. Agencies, recruiters, job boards, and so on, are off topic here.

Readers: please only email these addresses to discuss work opportunities.

There's a site for searching these posts at https://www.wantstobehired.com.

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ferguess_k 9 days ago

Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

I have been purchasing used/new Lenovo/Dell laptops for the last 7 years, and I have noticed that the build quality of recent models is concerning.

Lenovo: Ex-company gave me a NEW Carbon X1 around 2019, and the battery only lasted for less than a year (!). On the other side, I bought a used 2017 470S from the same company, added more RAM, didn't touch anything including the SSD, and I'm still using it in daily coding. I did buy a new battery last month so technically the old batteries lasted for about 7-8 years.

Dell: I bought 3 laptops + 1 desktop from Dell Refurbished (So the quality should be consistent). 2 laptops + 1 desktop are older models, and 1 is Precision 5550 (2021) that I bought last December. Everything works fine, except for the 5550, which has issues with battery (dropped from 31% to 4% in a few seconds) and (more deadly) charging port (doesn't charge from time to time). Even if I bought it new in 2021, I would be surprised that it only lasted for a bit over 4 years.

The other issue is that 5550 uses USB-C ports. I blame on myself not checking it closely before the purchase. I really hate those ports. Why is everyone copying from Mac?

What's my option? I can't really justify the 2,000+ CAD price point for a new laptop, especially if it lasts less than 5 years. I'd prefer a "low-end" workstation with 32GB memory, but because of the price point I can only afford a 16GB non-workstation one. I don't do gaming any more but I still prefer a good integrated video card. I can't afford Framework and other Linux laptops because they are expensive and usually don't operate in Canada so delivery is expensive too.

I did buy a used Macbook Pro M1 16GB (2021) from my current company last month. I haven't used it but I'm confident that the hardware is good. The problem is I don't really like the software, so I figured I still need a Linux box.

Did you find any sweet spot?

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whoishiring 9 days ago

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2025)

Please state the location and include REMOTE for remote work, REMOTE (US) or similar if the country is restricted, and ONSITE when remote work is not an option.

Please only post if you personally are part of the hiring company—no recruiting firms or job boards. One post per company. If it isn't a household name, explain what your company does.

Please only post if you are actively filling a position and are committed to responding to applicants.

Commenters: please don't reply to job posts to complain about something. It's off topic here.

Readers: please only email if you are personally interested in the job.

Searchers: try https://dheerajck.github.io/hnwhoishiring/, http://nchelluri.github.io/hnjobs/, https://hnresumetojobs.com, https://hnhired.fly.dev, https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/, https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com, or this (unofficial) Chrome extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hn-hiring-pro/mpfal....

Don't miss this other fine thread: Who wants to be hired? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46108940

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gooob 2 days ago

Ask HN: Are there any viable Android phones for a power user to buy nowadays?

i have a pixel 4, and it looks like i might be stuck with this phone forever if things keep going in the same direction (hopefully they don't). the pixel 4 isn't bad, but even on this i don't have the level of customization that i had back in the day with cyanogenmod etc. on my note 3 or epic 4g touch.

here are some requirements that i can think of:

    - not huge. small enough to use with 1 hand

    - able to root and install custom OS without too much difficulty/annoyance (the manufacturer doesn't actively try to stop you from modifying your own device)
    
    - able to use mint mobile

    - has a trackball (like the htc hero, that thing was fuckin awesome)

    - possibly some hardware buttons

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johnnyballgame 1 day ago

What's Next? Clippy Copilot?

I'm sure there's more, but Copilot gave up.

- Microsoft Copilot

- Microsoft Copilot Pro

- Microsoft 365 Copilot

- Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

- Microsoft Security Copilot

- Microsoft Copilot in Intune

- Microsoft Copilot Studio

- Microsoft Copilot in Edge

- Microsoft Copilot in Windows

- Microsoft Copilot in WhatsApp

- Microsoft Copilot in GroupMe

- GitHub Copilot

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Fire-Dragon-DoL 5 days ago

Ask HN: Modern C# book for experienced developers?

I worked with C# about 15 years ago. Due to some circumstances at work, I have the opportunity to use it again.

What are some great books that could help me learn to write *modern* C#?

I will mostly work with web and .NET Core, are there books specifically about using .NET Core on Linux?

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seinecle 3 days ago

Cursor and Claude Opus 4.5 is a game changer

The combination of the two delivers on the promise: fast and clever editing of multiple files in a codebase, with minimal human intervention.

No other model I tried in Cursor comes even close.

Question: did anyone tried Claude Codex: as good as Cursor?

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rco8786 5 days ago

Ask HN: Cloudflare WAF Alternatives?

I don't know if we're ready to pull the trigger yet, but curious if other folks are looking at alternatives.

The WAF is great, but recent events have made it obvious that having a single point of failure entirely defeats the purpose of DNS being a distributed/decentralized service.

Is anyone doing anything creative here? We like the features that the WAF provides - but not at the expense of global outages. If you have a 3 9s availability SLA, you've just blown 90% of your allotted downtime because of Cloudflare's WAF.

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