Solomon Hykes
CEO & Co-founder of Dagger, creator of Docker
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Solomon Hykes is best known as the creator of Docker, the open-source platform that revolutionized software development and deployment through containerization. His work fundamentally changed how applications are built, shipped, and run by standardizing their execution environments. Drawing on his deep experience tackling complexity at the infrastructure level, Solomon is now Founder and CEO of Dagger, focusing on the foundational challenges of building and operating reliable, scalable AI agent systems. He is passionate about applying platform engineering principles to the emerging AI landscape, helping engineers navigate this technological shift and build more dependable systems.
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How to trust an agent with software delivery
AI-powered agents promise faster, easier software delivery, but their unpredictable behavior often makes engineers hesitant to fully trust them with critical workflows. Sam Alba, Co-founder of Dagger (and previously co-creator of Docker), explains how teams can reliably integrate agents into their delivery pipelines by shifting how they structure and manage automation.
He'll share four practical strategies learned from real-world experience:
1. Treat agents as workflow participants, not isolated tools.
Stop using agents as disconnected scripts or IDE plugins. Treating them as first-class parts of your delivery process simplifies your architecture, reduces hidden complexity, and makes agent outcomes more predictable.
2. Use many small agents instead of one big one.
Just as software evolved from monoliths to microservices, software delivery benefits from smaller, specialized agents with clearly defined responsibilities. Smaller agents are easier to understand, maintain, and integrate.
3. Define clear environments—the real lever for reliability.
Instead of chasing perfect prompts or models, focus on clearly defining the tools, resources, and permissions around your agents. Precisely controlling their environments makes agents behave consistently and reliably.
4. Design workflows for easy debugging and observability.
Agents will sometimes fail unexpectedly. Sam will share simple, effective ways to build clear tracing and observability into your workflows from the start, making debugging quicker and less frustrating.
You'll leave with practical, immediately usable techniques that give you the confidence to trust AI agents in your software delivery pipelines.
Containing Agent Chaos
AI agents promise breakthroughs but often deliver operational chaos. Building reliable, deployable systems with unpredictable LLMs feels like wrestling fog – testing outputs alone is insufficient when the underlying workflow is opaque and flaky. How do we move beyond fragile prototypes?
This talk, from the creator of Docker, argues the solution lies *outside* the model: engineering **reproducible execution workflows** built on rigorous architectural discipline. Learn how **containerization**, applied not just to deployment but to *each individual step* of an agent's workflow, provides the essential **isolation and environmental consistency** needed.
Discover how combining this granular container approach with patterns like immutable state management allows us to **contain agent chaos**, unlock effective testing, simplify debugging, and bring essential control and predictability back to building powerful AI agents you can actually ship with confidence.
Solomon Hykes
CEO & Co-founder of Dagger, creator of Docker
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