Learning on the Shop floor

📰 Simon Willison's Blog

Shopify's internal coding agent tool, River, operates in public on their Slack, promoting transparency and learning on the shop floor

intermediate Published 11 May 2026
Action Steps
  1. Create a public channel in Slack to interact with River
  2. Use River to automate coding tasks in the public channel
  3. Observe and learn from others' interactions with River
  4. Experiment with River's capabilities in a public channel
  5. Integrate River into your development workflow using Slack
Who Needs to Know This

Developers and product managers at Shopify benefit from River's public operation, allowing them to learn from each other's interactions with the tool

Key Insight

💡 Transparency in tool usage can facilitate learning and collaboration among team members

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🤖 Shopify's River coding agent operates in public on Slack, promoting transparency and learning #Shopify #River

Key Takeaways

Shopify's internal coding agent tool, River, operates in public on their Slack, promoting transparency and learning on the shop floor

Full Article

Learning on the Shop floor Tobias Lütke describes Shopify's internal coding agent tool, River, which operates entirely in public on their Slack: River does not respond to direct messages. She politely declines and suggests to create a public channel for you and her to start working in. I myself work with river in #tobi_river channel and many followed this pattern. Every conv
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