I Don't Type Code Anymore. I Still Read Every Line.

I build agentic workflows at GitLab and I still read every line they produce. Not because the agents are bad — because trust gets earned, the same way it does with a new hire. Everyone says “keep a human in the loop” and nobody says which loop, or when you’re allowed to leave. So here’s where I actually put myself: hands-on for planning, out of the way for execution, back in for review, and checkpoints everywhere else.

I stopped typing code entirely, but I still read every line. Here is how I maintain quality while building agentic workflows.

Everyone says to keep a human in the loop, but few explain exactly when you are allowed to step away. I share my practical framework for managing AI agents, from planning and execution to the mandatory review checkpoints that keep my work secure. It is about knowing when to be hands-on and when to let the software factory run itself.

I treat my agentic engineering setup like a new hire: trust is earned through consistent performance, not blind automation. I still review every single output, and I do not hand off the thinking, even if I outsource the typing. My goal is to keep the architecture and the decisions under my control while using these tools to handle the background tasks.

In this video

• 0:00 Come with me to sort out the Halloween decorations
• 0:48 When to put yourself in the loop
• 1:12 The stuff you can safely delegate
• 2:17 Where it gets muddy: planning and execution
• 2:43 Be as involved as you can at the start
• 3:33 The day shift and the night shift
• 3:52 Where the human comes back in
• 5:05 I won’t send a human anything I haven’t reviewed
• 5:31 Do we still need human reviewers at all?
• 6:34 Not full YOLO mode yet
• 7:03 Automatic triggers and the token DDoS problem
• 8:19 The software factory
• 8:45 Why you need checkpoints
• 9:42 What “human in the loop” actually means
• 10:24 CI and deterministic checkpoints
• 11:02 One full loop, idea to merge
• 14:32 Security and governance at enterprise scale
• 15:46 Trust is earned, same as a new hire
• 16:18 In summary: start strict, then back off
• 17:21 Don’t hand off the thinking
• 17:44 Outsource the typing, keep the architecture