Slop-Mop: Harm Reduction for Addicted Agents
The article discusses the creation of Slop-Mop, a system designed to help coding agents avoid shortcuts and improve code quality. The author, William Martin, shares his personal journey with addiction and how it influenced the development of Slop-Mop. The system acts as an automated lockkeeper, guiding agents towards better coding practices without direct supervision.
- ▪Slop-Mop is a gate system for coding agents that redirects them from shortcuts to concrete cleanup work.
- ▪The author, William Martin, shares his experience with addiction and how it shaped the design of Slop-Mop.
- ▪The system helps improve code quality by blocking deceptive commits and requiring agents to write meaningful tests.
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Slop-Mop: Harm Reduction for Addicted AgentsReward functions, addiction, and not knowing what the f$&k is realWilliam MartinMay 18, 2026ShareSlop-Mop: Harm Reduction for Addicted AgentsReward functions, addiction, and not knowing what the f$&k is realslop-mop is a gate system for coding agents. It catches the shortcuts they reach for — fake tests, magic numbers, duplicated blocks, bloated files, dangling imports, commit-hook bypasses — and redirects them into concrete cleanup work instead of scolding them. Coding agents optimize for apparent completion. Addicts optimize for relief. Both can route around internal rules.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Hacker News (Newest).
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