Simon Willison：编程智能体让逆向工程变得廉价
Original title: Reverse-engineering is cheap now
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Simon Willison 观察到，越来越多人用编程智能体逆向工程并自动化家中设备。此前这类工作虽可行，但投入产出比低，且未文档化的不稳定 API 可能随时失效，维护成本令人却步。编程智能体大幅降低了实现简单自动化的成本，也让尝试失败和维护代码的心理负担显著减轻。
20th July 2026
I keep hearing anecdotes from people who used coding agents to reverse-engineer and automate devices in their homes.
I think this is an interesting illustration of the impact of the reduced cost of writing code.
Prior to agents, it was entirely possible to reverse-engineer home devices. The problem was the ROI - was it really worth all of that effort? More importantly, any experienced programmer knows that undocumented, unstable APIs like that may well change or break in the future. Is that initial work worth the effort if you're committing yourself to a frustrating cycle of maintenance in the future?
Coding agents change that equation entirely. The effort to get a simple automation working has dropped, as has the cost of trying and failing to get it to work. Since the code is so cheap, the idea of having to maintain it in the future - or throw it away and start again - carries way less psychological baggage.
Source: Simon Willison · Coding Agents · simonwillison.net