http://programmer.ie/tags/speculative-execution/ Recent content in Speculative Execution on Programmer.ie: Modern AI programming Hugo en-us Sun, 09 Aug 2026 11:10:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/post/advanced-agents-from-first-principles-19/ Sun, 09 Aug 2026 11:10:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/post/advanced-agents-from-first-principles-19/ <h1 id="advanced-agents-from-first-principles-19-can-your-agent-explore-in-parallel-without-creating-chaos-use-speculative-execution-and-early-cancellation">Advanced Agents From First Principles 19: Can Your Agent Explore in Parallel Without Creating Chaos? Use Speculative Execution and Early Cancellation</h1> <p>A production agent often has more than one useful thing it could do next.</p> <p>It could:</p> <ul> <li>inspect repository state,</li> <li>run a targeted test,</li> <li>retrieve documentation,</li> <li>ask a second model to critique a candidate,</li> <li>generate an alternative implementation,</li> <li>probe an API,</li> <li>inspect a deployment,</li> <li>or verify an invariant.</li> </ul> <p>If those actions are independent, executing them one by one can be needlessly slow.</p>