is-ai-agent for Rust: detect if your CLI is invoked by an agent
AI agents are the new users of CLIs. I published a new Rust crate is-ai-agent to let CLIs know when they're being used by AI.
sdairs - the blog of Al Brown
A little bit of everything from Al Brown
Latest posts
Agent Experience: Building a CLI for ClickHouse
AX is the new DX. I've been noodling on an experimental CLI for ClickHouse to improve my life working with agents.
How to create a Python Processor in Apache NiFi 2
Apache NiFi 2 added support for Python Processors, here's how to create a NiFi dev environment and install a custom Python Processor
Conversations with 200+ people at Kafka Summit
I spent 2 long days at Kafka Summit 2024 and spoke with over 200 practitioners. Here are the four themes that came up most.
Keeping up with WarpStream
WarpStream is an interesting cloud-native Kafka alternative that is challenging the assumptions of the past. Here's why it matters.
There is no Data Engineering roadmap
Data Engineering is booming and many are looking for a cheat sheet to get started. Do you really need to learn 200 tools before you get your first job?
The (lacking) future of ETL
ETL provides no real value, it's just really expensive glue. So-called 'Zero-ETL' has the potential to free up so much $$$.
My take on Developer Experience
Developer Experience does not mean ‘does this look pretty’ or even ‘does this solve a problem’. It means ‘does this help you solve the problem’.
Mixing it up with Tinybird.co
I've had a brilliant 2-and-a-bit years with Cloudera, but in a surprising turn of events, I've decided it's time for something a little bit different.
Introducing dbt-impala
dbt has made a splash in the data ecosystem, and at the Cloudera Innovation Accelerator, we're bringing dbt to Apache Impala.
The Cloudera Innovation Accelerator & me
I recently took on a new role at Cloudera as a Senior Developer Advocate in the newly formed Cloudera Innocation Accelerator.
Getting started with NiFi's ScriptedReader
Records have become an integral part of working with NiFi. They allow us to treat our data as more than just a bunch of bytes.
NiFi Terminology Basics
This post is going to cover all of the basic terminology that you will need to know when working with Apache NiFi.
Installing NiFi 1.14.0 on Linux (non-production)
This post is going to walk through installing version 1.14.0 of NiFi on a Linux host (Fedora), and discuss the new secure-by-default changes.
S3 Event Notifications in NiFi
Pulling new files from storage is common, typically using the ListFile -> FetchFile pattern. For S3, we can instead use S3 Event Notifications.
Importing individual flow definitions in NiFi
You can easily import flow definition json files straight from the NiFi GUI. This post will quickly demonstrate how.
Building a simple REST API in NiFi
In a previous post I discussed using REST APIs to enrich records. This post will cover building the corresponding REST API that I used in that post.
Enriching Records with LookupRecord & REST APIs in NiFi
It's common to want to enrich IoT data with the results of a REST API call . Here's how to build this flow using NiFi.
Version Control & Deploy flows with NiFi Registry
Version Control is everyone's favourite subject, so how does it work with NiFi? This post explains how to use NiFi Registry to version control your NiFi flows.
NiFi Resources For Learning & Improving
It's always a bit of a learning curve to get started with any new tool. This is a list of my favourite resources for keeping up to date with NiFi.
Kafka with multiple Listeners and SASL
This post will quickly discuss how to configure Kafka with multiple listeners for client & inter-broker traffic.
Connecting to a secure Impala via NiFi
In this post, I'll demonstrate one way to connect NiFi to a secured Impala with ExecuteSQL via the JDBC driver.
Moving the data dir of MariaDB on CentOS7
A quick look at how to safely move the existing data directory of MariaDB on a CentOS7 host from the terminal.