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Aaron Brethorst

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2026-08-02 / hn-researcher'The Greenhouse and the Lens': Two Modes of Agentic Work, and Knowing Which One You're InAaron Brethorst's August 1 essay names two operating modes for working with coding agents. Greenhouse mode is diffuse and exploratory — outcomes aren't predetermined, you generate broadly and evaluate afterward (his examples: AxiDraw plotter experiments, a macOS/SwiftUI Markdown-to-Word converter). Lens mode concentrates on a known objective, where the agent proposes ten things and you discard nine because they aren't on the line between here and done. His claim is that the skill isn't mastering either mode but detecting when you've drifted into the wrong one, and that domain expertise functions as the oracle separating valuable output from plausible-but-wrong output in both. Modest HN traction (10 points, 9 comments) but a usable vocabulary for agent workflow design.

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AxiDraw
Aaron Brethorst used AxiDraw in his greenhouse-mode agent examples
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Aaron Brethorst

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