The Velocity Lab

Dave and Dan compare Shipwright (their open-source autonomous coding agent) vs. Devin AI — covering cost, extensibility, deployment, and why open source wins.

Show Notes

Episode Summary

Dave and Dan break down how Shipwright, their open-source autonomous coding agent, stacks up against Devin AI — a $26B-valued competitor. They cover the key differences: open source vs. black box, runs in your infrastructure vs. Devin's cloud, built on Claude Code for full extensibility, and the one thing Devin doesn't do that Shipwright does — deploy.

Key Topics

  • Why they accidentally built a Devin alternative while building for their own clients
  • Open source (MIT) vs. closed black box — what you can and can't customize
  • Your infrastructure vs. Devin's cloud — the security and flexibility gap
  • Claude Code as the foundation: plugins, skills, and the extensibility advantage
  • Deployment: Shipwright merges and deploys, Devin stops at the PR
  • Cost model: Shipwright's only cost is tokens; Devin adds licensing at every seat

Notable Quotes

  • "Shipwright literally built Shipwright. The last 1,000 pull requests in Shipwright were all written by Shipwright."
  • "Devin is a black box. You have no idea what it's doing. The only knobs you can turn are the ones they give you."

About The Velocity Lab

Dave O'Dell and Dan McAulay work inside engineering organizations every day helping them ship faster with AI. No hype, no BS — just what's working in the field.

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What is The Velocity Lab?

Dave O'Dell and Dan McAulay work inside engineering organizations every day, helping them ship faster with AI — not in theory, but inside their actual teams. Each week they share what they're seeing in the field: what's working, what isn't, and what most people are getting wrong. Covering Claude Code updates, AI-enabled SDLC acceleration, and personal AI agents. No hype, no BS.