About
I'm Terry Byrd. I help builders, strategists, and executives understand what it actually takes to deploy AI systems that don't fall apart.
The Problem I Saw
For the last few years, we've been trained to think about AI in a very specific way: a chat box, a prompt, a clever response. Ask the right question, get the right answer, move on.
That mental model is already breaking.
AI isn't just answering questions anymore. It's acting. Making decisions. Coordinating tasks. Running workflows across real systems with real consequences.
And when AI starts acting autonomously, the cost of getting it wrong becomes very real.
I've watched dozens of organizations attempt to move from AI experimentation to AI implementation. Most of them stall. Not because the technology doesn't work. Not because they lack talent. Not because leadership doesn't support it.
They stall because they never make the transition from prompt thinking to system thinking.
What I Teach
The most important role in AI won't be prompt engineer. It won't be framework specialist. It won't be someone who just knows the latest model.
It will be the agentic AI strategist—someone who designs systems that don't fall apart under pressure.
Tools will change. Models will improve. Frameworks will come and go. But principles don't.
That's what this site is about: the principles that make AI systems reliable, observable, and sustainable. Organized into nine essential skills across three pillars:
- Autonomous System Architecture — Orchestration, interoperability, observability
- Data-Centric AI Engineering — Memory, context economics, data governance
- Security, Governance & Capability — Identity, tools, adversarial resilience
These skills don't stand alone. They reinforce each other. The weakest one defines the system.
My Background
I've spent 40+ years in technology—long enough to watch multiple paradigm shifts come and go. Long enough to see which approaches survive and which ones fade.
The pattern is always the same: the organizations that win are the ones who master fundamentals, not the ones who chase the latest tools.
That's the lens I bring to agentic AI. Not hype. Not tool reviews. Not "prompt of the week." Just the boring fundamentals that actually work, applied consistently over time.
What You'll Find Here
The Nine Skills Framework — A comprehensive guide to the competencies that separate AI experiments from AI systems.
AI Foundations — I'm building and teaching the complete infrastructure stack for agentic AI applications, organized into levels:
- Level 0: Full-Stack Foundations — Production-ready patterns for FastAPI, PostgreSQL, React, and TypeScript. The 5 Guardrails every application needs.
- Level 0.5: Authentication — Identity and access management for AI systems.
- Level 1: AI Agent Core — Reusable components for any agentic application: LLM clients, tool frameworks, agent orchestration, and memory/context management.
- Level 2: Domain Patterns — Reusable patterns for specific domains (investment, operations, etc.).
- Level 3: Applications — Complete agentic AI applications built on the foundation layers.
Each level builds on the ones below. I'm building all of this publicly, explaining the architecture decisions, and showing what actually works in production.
Videos — Deep dives on specific topics, from context economics to non-human identity management.
Newsletter — Weekly insights on building AI that actually works. No spam, no fluff.
Get in Touch
I read every email. If you have questions about agentic AI architecture, or you're facing a specific challenge in your implementation, reach out.