What You Built, Why It Matters, What to Have Ready for 9 AM
Day 1 Close & Day 2 Preview
What you built · why it matters · what's next
Day 1 · Session 8 — 15 minutes · laptops closed
The close is as important as the open. You leave knowing exactly what you built, exactly why it matters, and exactly what to have ready for 9 AM tomorrow.
This Morning vs. Now
You came in this morning as developers who use AI tools. You leave today as developers who build AI tools.
Take a breath. Let that land before we look at tomorrow.
Part 1 — What You Built
Five artifacts. One system.
The Five Artifacts
| # | Artifact | What it is | Its role in the full StackLog system |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | stacklog-mcp/src/index.ts |
Your MCP server — create_entry + search_entries |
The data layer. Tomorrow's React app reads this exact store. |
| 2 | stacklog-entries.json |
The persistent JSON store (external memory) | The bridge between Day 1 and Day 2. The app will display every entry in it. |
| 3 | lab3-system-prompt.md |
A reusable agent prompt — patterns + five guards | The design document for autonomous agents. Reused for Day 2's Architect persona. |
| 4 | lab3-retro.md |
Break scenarios: failure mode, root cause, guard | Evidence of engineering thinking. Feeds Day 2's spec as a source of requirements. |
| 5 | Antigravity MCP config | mcp_config.json — three servers connected |
The agent runtime. Hosts the Architect/Developer/Reviewer personas all day tomorrow. |
Look at Row 2
stacklog-entries.jsondoesn't exist because of a pre-written demo.It exists because you built the MCP server that creates it — and because an AI called your code to write it.
And row 5: this morning your MCP config was empty. Now it connects three servers — two pre-built, one you wrote from scratch.
That's an agentic development environment you own.
The Two Days Are One System
Tomorrow, a React app reads row 2 and displays it in a browser.
Day 1 and Day 2 aren't separate. They're one system — and you've already built half of it.
Part 2 — Three-Question Retro
Say it out loud — it consolidates the day
Retro — Question 1
"What's the single most important thing you built today — and why?"
The MCP server? (the one artifact used again tomorrow) The system-prompt process? (it generalises far beyond this room)
Both are right. The insight: the artifact matters less than the thinking behind it.
Retro — Question 2
"What would you do differently for a real production system?"
Likely answers — and note them, they preview tomorrow's spec:
- Authentication on the server · SQLite instead of JSON
- Better tool error handling · rate-limiting on search
- Human-in-the-loop approval before
create_entry
Every one of these is a requirement — exactly what a spec captures.
Retro — Question 3
"Finish the sentence: this morning I thought agents were ___, now I think they are ___."
Common shifts: magic → designed · automatic → explicit · smart → structured · hard to build → totally buildable.
Whatever you say — that gap is the mindset shift this workshop exists to create.
Part 3 — Day 2 Preview
From "How" to "What"
The Pivot
Today you mastered the How — how agents work, how tools are called, how prompts control behaviour, how failures happen and how to guard against them.
Tomorrow is the What — given all that, how do you build software well with AI?
The answer is spec-driven development. And the spec you write tomorrow describes an app that reads the file you built today.
What Tomorrow Looks Like
| Session | What you'll do | Connection to today |
|---|---|---|
| S9 — Why specs beat prompts | What a spec is, why it beats ad-hoc prompting | your lab3-retro.md is an informal spec |
| S10 — BMAD lifecycle | The 6-stage pipeline + 3 personas | Architect persona mirrors your Session-6 prompt design |
| Lab 4 — Spec sprint | Write the PRD + Tech Spec for StackLog web | the spec describes the app that reads your JSON store |
| Lab 5 — Stories & tasks | Spec → prioritised backlog (≥12 tasks) | stories map to the tool schemas you wrote in Lab 2 |
| Lab 6 — Codegen sprint | Build React + Express + SQLite | the backend serves the same data your MCP server writes |
| S11 — Spec drift & review | Reviewer persona: diffs vs. spec | same diagnostic skill as the break exercise, on code |
| S12 — Showcase | Live: MCP creates entry → app displays it | both days connect in one demo |
The Connection Moment
Tomorrow at the showcase, every team will do exactly this:
- Open the agent. Run a prompt.
- Watch the MCP server from Lab 2 create a new entry.
- Open the browser. Refresh the web app from Lab 6.
- The entry you just created appears on screen.
One prompt. Two days of work. One live system.
It starts with writing a spec that describes exactly how that app works.
Part 4 — Evening Prep
Three things to do tonight
Tonight's Three Actions
1 — Install / verify your codegen agent Make sure your Antigravity agent is ready for code generation (Labs 5–6). (If your track also uses Copilot Chat in VS Code, install it now: search "GitHub Copilot Chat" in Extensions.)
Why: Lab 6 generates the app — you need the agent working before you can follow along.
2 — Clone the BMAD Method templates
🪟 cd $env:USERPROFILE\stacklog-workshop
🍎🐧 cd ~/stacklog-workshop
git clone https://github.com/bmadcode/BMAD-METHOD docs/bmad
Why: Lab 4 opens the BMAD PRD template. Cloning tonight = no download wait tomorrow. If the URL changed: search "BMAD METHOD github" — it's the top result.
3 — Skim the BMAD README (15 min max)
Read only the overview of docs/bmad/README.md.
Why: you just need to recognise the four document types — PRD, Tech Spec, Story Map, Task List — so Session 9 lands immediately.
Optional, but Worth It
Open
stacklog-entries.jsonand read the entries you created today. These are the records the StackLog app will display tomorrow.Think of one feature you'd want to add — you may get to spec and build it in the Lab 4 extension challenge.
Day 1 Completion Check
Confirm before you leave (or by 9 AM tomorrow):
- [ ]
stacklog-mcp/pushed to GitHub — both tools implemented - [ ]
lab3-system-prompt.mdcommitted — four sections, five guards - [ ]
lab3-retro.mdcommitted — ≥ 2 break scenarios documented - [ ]
stacklog-entries.jsonhas ≥ 2 entries (one from Lab 1, one from Lab 3) - [ ] MCP config has 3 servers:
filesystem, search (ddg-search/mock-search),stacklog
Missing a GitHub push? You have until 9 AM. We won't hold the class.
Close — On Energy, Not Admin
You came in this morning as developers who use AI tools. You leave as developers who build AI tools.
What you built today — an MCP server, a multi-tool agent pipeline, a documented break-and-harden process — is not a workshop exercise. It's a portfolio artifact. Put it on GitHub. Talk about it in interviews.
See you at 9 AM. Laptop charged. Codegen agent ready.