Show Notes
Picking up from the saved task that was still there the next day, this episode explains where your software actually remembers things — the database — and the one rule you must never break. It makes the case, for complete beginners, that the fast instinct of changing a database live is exactly what destroys history, review and undo. Instead, every change goes through a numbered, reversible migration your agent writes for you.
In this episode: - Why the database is simply the part of your system whose job is remembering - The filing-cabinet picture: drawers (tables), folders (records), and why same-shape records make everything fast and reliable - The strictest rule in software — never rearrange the cabinet by hand; every design change is a numbered, reviewable migration kept forever - 'Look before you lock': every migration ships with its own undo, and you check existing records before adding a new rule - Why you never need to learn SQL — you describe the change in plain English and the agent produces the migration - How Claude Code and Codex are built to pause at exactly these durable-state moments - What real systems show: the migration stack is the honest biography, while hand-written descriptions drift out of date within weeks
Sources: episode-05-where-everything-lives.md
Full episode page: https://fatsandsugars.com/ai-hype-signal/how-to-build-software-with-ai-ep-5-where-everything-lives/
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