Bird's-eye illustrated view of the Yellowstone farm compound at golden hour

Yellowstone — First Principles for AI Agent Ecosystems

Simple AI demos hide the paradigm. This series uses a fierce farm in a valley — one you might recognize from the TV series — to explore the first principles of agentic architecture: governance, autonomy, attention, compound complexity. The farm vocabulary can't collide with your business domain, which means you and your AI of choice can walk through it together and apply the patterns to your own operation.

3 chapters published

Full Yellowstone farm compound viewed from the south — all buildings visible inside the fence, market stall outside, mountains in background
Chapter 1

A Sufficiently Complex Example

To explain a useful concept, you need a sufficiently complex example. Nygaard knew this in 2002. It is exactly as true in 2026.

Read chapter · 5 minarrow_forward
Six farm hands gathered on the farmhouse porch at morning standup, pen-and-ink illustration with watercolor washes in the Yellowstone series style
Chapter 2

The People — Six Hands, One Farmer

The bell rings at seven. Six hands gather on the porch. Meet the people who work this farm and the problem that changes everything.

Read chapter · 7 minarrow_forward
Yellowstone compound main gate and fence line — timber gate open, market stall on open gravel outside, barn and farmhouse visible through the gate
Chapter 3

The Fence — What Makes Autonomous Work Safe

The hands can be present in multiple fields at once. This changes everything about how the farm must be governed.

Read chapter · 7 minarrow_forward