Reverse-engineering is cheap now
- ID
- 6205
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 21 Jul 2026, 3:24 AM
- Fetched
- 21 Jul 2026, 4:26 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/20/cheap-reverse-engineering/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 8.0
- Created
- 21 Jul 2026, 4:26 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_codersai_agent_userssaas_founders
What happened
Simon Willison observes that coding agents have dramatically lowered the cost of reverse-engineering undocumented APIs and automating home devices. What used to be a high-effort, high-maintenance gamble is now cheap enough that trying, failing, and even rewriting code later feels low-risk.
Why it matters
For Malaysian builders and hobbyists, this means previously impractical automation projects—smart home hacks, integrating with local telco or payment APIs, or scraping government digital services—become viable experiments. The lowered maintenance burden also changes how teams should think about throwaway prototypes and integration work.
Discussion angle
What local APIs or devices would you now attempt to reverse-engineer with agents that you previously dismissed as not worth the effort?