Insights
Technical deep-dives, AI strategy, and engineering perspectives from the team building autonomous systems.
We Built OpenAstra to Solve Our Own Agent Infrastructure Problems
OpenAstra started as internal tooling for the Contra Collective team. Here's why we built it, what problems it solves, and why we open-sourced it.
We Watched the OpenClaw Hype. Then We Built OpenAstra.
OpenClaw got everyone excited about AI agents. But the ecosystem it created — community MCP servers, third-party plugins, unaudited code running on your own services — is a different conversation.
The Future of ERP: When Your Back-Office Becomes Autonomous
How agentic AI is transforming ERP from a system of record into a system of action — and what that means for operations teams.
Multi-Agent Orchestration: Patterns That Scale
How to architect agent swarms that coordinate without chaos.
Building Observable AI Systems: Logging, Tracing, and Monitoring Agents
The observability stack every production AI system needs — and why it matters more than the AI itself.
Embedding AI Into Your Shopify Plus Stack
From intelligent search to autonomous merchandising — practical integration patterns.
Vector Databases Explained: The Infrastructure Behind RAG Systems
What vector databases actually do, when you need one, and how to choose between Pinecone, pgvector, and Weaviate.
The Agentic Commerce Stack: Building for 2026 and Beyond
What your commerce infrastructure needs to look like when agents, not humans, are making operational decisions.
How to Audit Your Business for AI Automation Opportunities
A practical framework for identifying where AI creates the most leverage in your operations — before you write a single line of code.
From Chatbots to Agents: The Architecture Shift That Changes Everything
Why chatbots and agentic AI are fundamentally different — and why the architectural difference determines what's possible.
Headless Commerce ROI: When the Investment Pays Off (And When It Doesn't)
A frank financial analysis of headless commerce — the real costs, the actual returns, and the conditions where the investment makes sense.
LLM Fine-Tuning for E-Commerce: Practical Patterns and Pitfalls
When to fine-tune a foundation model vs. using RAG — and how to avoid the mistakes that waste months of effort.
Shopify Functions: The Developer's Guide to Checkout Extensibility
What Shopify Functions can actually do, where they fall short, and how to use them for dynamic checkout experiences.
The Shopify Plus Migration Playbook: Zero Downtime, Zero Data Loss
The exact process we use to migrate brands to Shopify Plus without disrupting operations or losing search rankings.
Enterprise E-Commerce in 2025: Platform Consolidation vs. Best-of-Breed
The strategic choice that most technical leaders don't fully appreciate — and why getting it wrong costs millions.
NetSuite + Shopify Integration Patterns That Actually Scale
The architecture decisions that determine whether your NetSuite-Shopify integration works at 1,000 orders a day or breaks at 50.
In Need of a Digital Strategy Consultant? 7 Traits to Look For
Not all digital strategy advisors are created equal. Here's how to separate the genuinely valuable from the expensive noise.
Recharge and the Subscription Business Model
Why subscriptions are the highest-ROI commerce model — and how to implement them on Shopify.
SFCC vs. Shopify Plus vs. Headless: A 2025 Developer's Comparison
An honest breakdown of which e-commerce platform wins and when — based on architecture, not hype.
Yotpo and the Design of Better Online Review Systems
Why customer reviews are the most powerful conversion lever in e-commerce — and how to deploy them properly.
Why Sanity CMS Is Transforming Headless Architecture
How structured content and real-time collaboration are changing the way brands manage digital experiences.