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Thor Henning Hetland

Software architect. AI development pioneer. Community builder.

30 years building software, communities, and organizations. Co-founder of JavaZone and founder of eXOReaction. Java Champion since 2005. Based in Oslo.

These days I'm focused on what happens when experienced architects work with AI -- not just alongside it.

Read the blog About me

Thor Henning Hetland

Recent writing

  • When Your Agent Can Finally Read the Room

    Synthesis v1.29.0 adds Notion as a workspace source. The harder problem: documentation and code tell different stories. Teaching an agent to notice when what's written and what's real have come apart.

    April 21, 2026

  • AI Agents Forget Everything. That's a Choice, Not a Constraint.

    For a personal productivity tool, stateless sessions are fine. For an enterprise deploying a fleet of AI agents, it's a fundamental architectural gap. What memory infrastructure looks like at organizational scale.

    April 18, 2026

  • Seven Out of Eight Models Lied About Finishing

    The Smidja benchmark: build a TypeScript CLI orchestrating 7 agents, zero compiler errors required. Seven of eight models self-reported completion. Most had not finished. Self-assessment failure is structurally inevitable.

    April 16, 2026

All posts

What I'm working on

  • Skill-Driven Development

    A methodology for structured AI collaboration that compounds daily. Six pillars. Proven 25--66x productivity gains across manufacturing, finance, energy, and security.

    About eXOReaction

  • Synthesis · v1.29.0

    Local-first knowledge infrastructure platform. 60+ CLI commands, 11 MCP tools, 4,300+ tests. Indexes workspaces, builds multi-layer knowledge graphs, exposes episodic memory and Notion integration to AI agents.

    Knowledge Infrastructure · Open Source

  • Knowledge Context Protocol

    A YAML standard that makes knowledge navigable by AI agents. Topology, intent, freshness, audience targeting. Submitted to the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation alongside MCP and AGENTS.md.

    Knowledge Infrastructure

  • lib-pcb

    A complete PCB design file processing library in Java. 8 format parsers, 28 validators, 17 auto-fixers, manufacturing-ready Gerber output. The project that proved SDD at scale -- 197,831 lines in 11 days.

    Open Source

  • Xorcery AAA

    Temporal analytics and DevSecOps intelligence platform built on the Xorcery reactive framework. Tracks vulnerability lifecycles, answers "why did this break?", and automates compliance -- without cloud lock-in.

    Open Source

  • Quadim

    A competence management SaaS platform. Helps organisations map, develop, and visualise the skills of their people. Built with the same AI-augmented methodology as lib-pcb.

    quadim.ai

  • Workshops & Training

    Hands-on SDD workshops for development teams. From full-day intensives to multi-week mentoring programs. Real code, real methodology, real results.

    Get in touch

  • JavaZone & Community

    Co-founded JavaZone in 2001 -- now Scandinavia's largest developer conference with ~3,000 attendees. Communities are where real knowledge transfer happens.

    Organizations

The proof

In January 2026, I built lib-pcb -- a complete PCB design library in Java.
197,831 lines of Java
7,461 tests (99.8% pass)
11 days total build time
10--18 months industry standard

8 format parsers. 28 validators. 17 auto-fixers. Manufacturing-ready Gerber output. Zero AI-induced production bugs.

This was not magic. It was methodology -- Skill-Driven Development applied systematically with Claude Code. The kind of thing I write about and teach in workshops.

Speaking

Conference talks on architecture, productivity, and development methodology. JavaZone, JavaOne, NDC, and more.

All presentations