ben

we’re launching Codag (@ycombinator S26) - the compression and control layer for agent tools. we started with logs. then customers pulled us into searches, tests, builds, and api responses. the pattern was always the same: agents burning context on repetitive output, with teams unable to see where the tokens went. Codag now cuts input-token usage ~3x at answer parity and gives teams visibility across their agent stack. agents are becoming the primary users of software - companies are adding agents, models, providers, and MCP servers faster than they can measure or control them. most cannot answer which tools their agents invoke, what those calls cost, or where the waste is. we’re building the layer between them and everything they read. 90+ engineering orgs already use Codag today to reduce that spend and see agent tool usage across provider. find out more and book a demo at codag.ai/

I got into @ycombinator S26! The past 6 months have felt like 2 years: - Turned down 7-figure new grad offers at top companies - Bootstrapped until my bank account hit zero - Pivoted 5 times, and did door-to-door sales for a couple of months - Joined @zfellows and flew out to SF last month - Cancelled my return flight to Toronto - Had wonderful neighbours I'd just met crowd-fund my apartment deposit - Got the call from @aroraharshita33 6 hours after my YC interview ...all without telling my mom. Codag is the crystallization of everything I picked up across infrastructure, systems, and platform engineering. Our thesis is that within two years, agents will be the primary consumer of logs, and soon the primary producer of them. Today's observability stack and dashboards were built for humans to look at. Agents are a different reader entirely, and the infrastructure for understanding systems at scale has to be rebuilt for them. That is what we're building. We start with log compression: turning millions of lines into a compact, cited capsule an agent can actually read, so it stops drowning and starts debugging. I cannot believe I get to work on this full time - I wake up every day looking forward to building more. To everyone who made it real: @carterkev, @cory, @aroraharshita33, @amiklas, @nemild for taking the bet, the neighbours who backed a stranger with a laptop, and the countless friends that support me. Thank you. We just published an open source CLI and algorithm for log compression, fully free at codag.ai/. If your agent debugs production, I'd love for you to try it, or just to talk. Got a lot more coming soon, and most of it will be open source. Now I should probably call my mom 😰