Anvil Users Group - Using AI with Anvil (April 22nd)

Hello everyone!

After the Anvil Users Group returned to a resounding success last March, we are more than ready for the next one! The theme is AI as part of the Anvil workflow. We have planned a few scheduled speakers, followed by an open floor for everyone to discuss their own AI workflows. Exciting!!

Next Meeting

When: 2026-04-22T15:00:00Z
(That’s 4pm in the UK, 8.30pm in India, 8am in California, 11am on the East Coast, and 11PM in East Asia – sorry about that part.)

Where: Google Meet – Sign up here to get the meeting link (or the recording if you can’t make it)

Agenda:

  • Show-and-tell
    A few select speakers will present their AI setup in the form of a show-and-tell. If you’ve been wondering where to start with AI, these concrete examples from experienced Anvil developers will undoubtedly give you some inspiration!
  • Open Q&A / Share your own AI setup
    Do you want to share how you work with AI? This is your opportunity to do it! We will open the floor to all participants for you to show us your AI setup, or ask questions to the scheduled speakers.

Would you like to be part of the Show-and-tell?

We are looking for volunteers! If you would like a dedicated timeslot during the Show-and-tell section of this Anvil Users Group to share your AI setup, please send us an email at contact@anvil.works!

Join us!

Sign up here: aug-registration.anvil.app


Have something to present?

Have you done something cool with Anvil that you’d like to share? Do you have some tips and tricks that would help other Anvil users? The community would love to hear from you!

Please drop us a line at contact@anvil.works and let us know what you’d like to speak about. We’ve got slots for more in-depth presentations (up to 20 minutes) and shorter (5-10 minutes), so don’t be shy!

4 Likes

But how do I access the video recording of the March Anvil users group?

1 Like

Hi there! You just need to register for the March AUG using the registration app. The recording will be sent to you via email.

1 Like

Ok, the link just arrived. Thanks a million!

1 Like

Can I check the UK time please? The invite says 1600 in the UK but the calendar link is for 1600UTC which is 1700 right now (BST).
Cheers

Sorry about that, the meeting will indeed take place at 4PM BST. Both the meeting link and calendar attachment sent out via email should be set to this time!

Many thanks for confirming. I look forward to the meeting

1 Like

Just a reminder: this is tomorrow!

Click the link up top to sign up. Come talk to a star-studded cast of scheduled speakers about using AI in Anvil, and maybe even showcase your own AI setup if you wish to!

2 Likes

Hi folks – we’ll be starting this in just over half an hour. Looking forward to seeing you there and exploring some AI workflows!

Edit: Here I am in the Anvil offices with a fresh cup of tea, watching the River Cam flow past in the sunshine. Let’s do this!

2 Likes

Dang - just realised this added to my calendar at 5pm not 4pm!

1 Like

@owen.campbell I’m sorry if you already explained this and I’m asking you to repeat yourself :sweat_smile:.

But during the meeting I didn’t quite understand why you are using isolated containers for some workflows and what the specific advantages are over using worktrees?

For code isolation - different branches/worktrees would be enough to ensure that the multiple agent instances don’t work on the same files and trip over each other’s work, correct?

What does using containers add on top of that?

Containers mean I can give the harness full permission to do whatever it likes. It never needs to confirm with me.

That’s not just editing files, that’s running executables. It can download a script and run it, write its own and run that. All without asking first.

Hell, it could it do cd / && rm -rf and not cause any real problem!

Also, if there is any kind of injection attack, it doesn’t affect more than the container.

5 Likes

Hi all,

What a session! Thanks so much to everyone who attended, and special thanks to @davidtopf2, @owen.campbell and @stucork for sharing how you’re using AI tools.

It was great to see so much interest – all three speakers were still discussing and answering questions half an hour after the session was supposed to end! We’ll definitely be coming back to this topic, as the tools (and Anvil!) continue to evolve.

There were a lot of links to interesting resources and perspectives shared in the chat. Please do post those you found useful to this thread.


If you’d like to present at next month’s Anvil User Group, or there’s something you’d particularly like to hear about, or someone you’d like to hear from, please post it here or drop us a line at contact@anvil.works.

We look forward to seeing you again next month!

4 Likes

I vaguely remember someone wanting to see my .md files for the frontend-guide etc. If yes please like this and then let me know how to send. Very happy to share any and all of my documentation :slight_smile:

1 Like

Here are the various links that I posted during the talk by @owen.campbell.

Standards that we (try to) follow:

We maintain a vault of markdown content that forms the context that is passed to agents. So that it’s also browsable by mere humans we use obsidian:

So that both we and agents can run semantic searches over that vault we use:

Orchestration of multiple, unattended, containerised agents:

Various tools that we have previously used, moved away from, but taken inspiration from/built our own version of:

Blog posts/projects that have informed our direction of travel:

https://steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-gas-town-4f25ee16dd04

6 Likes

Sorry, but due to work issues, I wasn’t able to attend the AUG. Is it possible to have a recording of the meeting?
Best regards

1 Like

I had registered, but I had technical difficulties when I tried to log in. I would also appreciate a recording of the meeting. Thank you very much!

@100wattapp @tfm As long as you have registered on the registration app, you will receive the recording as soon as it is available :grin: Make sure to keep an eye on your inbox!

I was so sad to miss this, the video is much appreciated!

Could we look into using a meeting ai assistant to help digest the videos? I use read.ai but most of them are good!

Also , @stucork mentioned the stubs :eyes: is there any timeline on the availablity!?

1 Like