Reverse-engineering is cheap now
The cost of writing code has decreased, making it more feasible for people to reverse-engineer and automate devices in their homes. This is largely due to the emergence of coding agents, which have reduced the effort and cost required to get a simple automation working. As a result, the psychological burden of maintaining or restarting a project has been significantly alleviated.
- ▪Coding agents have reduced the effort and cost required to reverse-engineer and automate devices.
- ▪The return on investment for reverse-engineering was previously a significant deterrent.
- ▪The use of coding agents has made it more practical to maintain or restart a project.
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| Original publisher | Simon Willison’s Weblog |
| Canonical URL | https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/20/cheap-reverse-engineering/ |
| Publication time | Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:10:46 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-21T06:31:42.843Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-21T06:31:42.843Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
I keep hearing anecdotes from people who used coding agents to reverse-engineer and automate devices in their homes. I think this is an interesting illustration of the impact of the reduced cost of writing code. Prior to agents, it was entirely possible to reverse-engineer home devices. The problem was the ROI - was it really worth all of that effort? More importantly, any experienced programmer knows that undocumented, unstable APIs like that may well change or break in the future. Is that initial work worth the effort if you're committing yourself to a frustrating cycle of maintenance in the future? Coding agents change that equation entirely. The effort to get a simple automation working has dropped, as has the cost of trying and failing to get it to work.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Simon Willison’s Weblog.
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