This is the personal blog of Ben Houston (bio here), a 3D computer graphics software developer. I've worked on projects like Web3DSurvey, Three.js, Deadline, Krakaota, and Exocortex VFX plugins. I'm also an entrepreneur, having founded Land of Assets, Threekit, Clara.io, Exocortex, and Frantic Films Software.
Static API keys in environment variables and files are too easy to steal. A better model is proof-of-possession, where every API call must be signed by a non-exportable private key that is available only through a constrained signing interface.
Ben Houston • June 14, 2026
Testing command-line tools is deceptively hard - hanging processes, lost stderr, temp file juggling, and unreadable failures. I built vitest-command-line to make CLI testing in Vitest simple and robust.
Ben Houston • June 10, 2026
New in Node 25 is the node compile cache, which can deliver a 20% to 30% boost in server start-up time. I built `node-prewarm` to make that practical on real projects with minimal changes.
Ben Houston • May 15, 2026
How I built the MaterialX Fidelity Suite, then used it to drive pixel-perfect MaterialX support in both Three.js and Blender — including custom noise node implementations that finally close the gap between reference renders and open-source tools.
Ben Houston • May 1, 2026
MaterialX assets are multiple loose files, which breaks down in online, and collaborative contexts. The community has already solved this with zip packaging. We just need to formalize it as .mtlz.
Ben Houston • April 24, 2026
After a decade building enterprise 3D visualization at Threekit, I've moved on to build Land of Assets — a product visualization platform built entirely on open standards and tied at the hip with AI image generation.
Ben Houston • April 14, 2026
Passwords are a shared-secret liability. Here is how to build a modern passwordless auth flow using Email OTP and Passkeys (WebAuthn), without storing passwords.
Ben Houston • March 26, 2026
A tiny, type-safe Google Analytics integration for TanStack Router and TanStack Start with automatic page views, typed GA4 helpers, and clean SSR-friendly setup.
Ben Houston • March 17, 2026
Today, I built a pure-TypeScript Zstandard implementation (library + CLI + dictionary training + interop tests) in just 4 hours using OpenAI Codex 5.3.
Ben Houston • February 20, 2026
How frustration with Trigger-Action Lists in production 3D tools led me to build behave-graph, champion it at SIGGRAPH, and help drive the KHR_interactivity glTF standard.
Ben Houston • February 19, 2026
A deep dive into why Land of Assets chose glTF over USD as the backbone for their Master Asset approach to ensure long-term interchangeability.
Ben Houston • February 19, 2026
3D on the web has exploded. The infrastructure to support it hasn't kept up. Here's why I built Land of Assets to fix that.
Ben Houston • February 2, 2026
Over the past year, I've dramatically reduced the number of scripts in my package.json files. What started as a gradual shift has become a deliberate practice: minimize abstractions, maximize clarity. This post explores why direct CLI usage beats script wrappers for transparency, flexibility, and AI-friendliness.
Ben Houston • January 20, 2026
As a software engineer, I'm used to having full visibility and control over the systems I manage. But my HVAC was operating like a black box running legacy code I couldn't touch. Here's how I reverse-engineered it and ended up giving my Ecobee direct, full-stack control.
Ben Houston • January 14, 2026
The story of how I coined the term "exocortex" in 1999 to describe a synthetic cognitive regulator - a technological layer that participates in the brain's regulatory hierarchy rather than merely extending its output.
Ben Houston • November 28, 2025
When writing tests with Vitest, you often need to perform setup tasks before all tests run and cleanup tasks after all tests complete. This is where Vitest's globalSetup feature comes in handy.
Ben Houston • November 19, 2025
This is the story of how I went from building Hollywood VFX tools to raising $65M for enterprise SaaS, and the three crucial lessons I learned along the way.
Ben Houston • July 26, 2025
After twenty years building computer graphics software used in Hollywood blockbusters and enterprise product visualization, here are the crucial lessons that can help entrepreneurs build more successful companies.
Ben Houston • May 22, 2025
Declary introduces a new capability for embedding intent specifications directly in your source code—transforming pseudocode into working implementations. This intuitive approach bridges the gap between what you want and how it's implemented, all within your existing files.
Ben Houston • May 7, 2025
Intent-driven testing shifts validation from implementation details to declared intent, ensuring your system works as specified rather th an just as coded. This approach generates comprehensive test suites from your intent files, introducing the powerful concept of specification coverage.
Ben Houston • May 7, 2025
Intent-based programming doesn’t have to be a disruptive shift. By treating it as a toolkit -- rather than a framework -- you can incrementally adopt declarative development practices without rewriting your architecture.
Ben Houston • May 5, 2025
AI coding agents are great at greenfield tasks -- but struggle to maintain or modify existing systems. The problem isn’t the model. It’s the paradigm. This essay makes the case for intent-based programming: a shift from task-driven implementation to declarative specification, powered by systems like Declary.
Ben Houston • May 5, 2025
The Generic Builder is a configurable meta‑builder that creates specialized builders on demand, solving the chicken‑and‑egg problem of intent‑based toolkits. This essay explains its design, the router agent, and a chat‑driven workflow that bridges conversational intent with structured files.
Ben Houston • May 5, 2025
Intent-based development shifts the focus of software engineering from manual implementation to structured intent. This vocabulary defines the core building blocks of Declary, a toolkit for generating and maintaining software systems through declarative specifications.
Ben Houston • May 2, 2025
Traditional specifications failed because they required exhaustive detail. With LLMs, we can now embrace "Sufficient Specification" - providing just enough intent to guide generation without drowning in details. Learn how iterative specification specificity and generator patterns make intent-based programming practical for the first time.
Ben Houston • May 1, 2025
Recursive generation allows intent-based programming toolkits to ingest their own outputs and build entire applications from minimal specifications. This essay explores how recursive intent turns code generation into a compiler-like pipeline that scales small prompts into structured systems.
Ben Houston • May 1, 2025
Charles Simonyi's Intentional Programming was a prescient attempt to shift software from languages to abstractions. In the age of AI and intent-based toolkits, many of his core insights are newly relevant. This essay explores the parallels and differences between Simonyi's vision and today's declarative, AI-driven development models.
Ben Houston • May 1, 2025
In traditional development, refactoring is a costly, manual effort to improve code structure without changing behavior. But in intent-based programming, refactors are reframed: they emerge naturally from specification shifts and cost little more than regeneration. This essay explores how we can reconceptualize refactoring in a world where code is ephemeral and intent is the source of truth.
Ben Houston • April 28, 2025
Code coverage tells you what code has been touched. Spec coverage tells you what intent has been verified. In the era of intent-based programming, it's time to stop measuring tests by lines of code and start measuring them by meaning.
Ben Houston • April 27, 2025
A detailed exploration of how TanStack Router handles data loading through beforeLoad and loader functions, with insights on execution order, data merging, and performance implications.
Ben Houston • April 7, 2025
Optimize your README.md files to empower both human developers and AI coding assistants alike.
Ben Houston • March 28, 2025
After building a high-performance home network with 3Gbps fiber, 10G switching, and NVMe storage, I've learned valuable lessons about infrastructure planning, connection types, and future-proofing that could save you time and money.
Ben Houston • March 27, 2025
AI coding assistants are excellent at generating tests with high coverage. But there is often a critical problem: they are testing that code behaves as written, not as intended. This "Test Theater" creates a dangerous illusion of quality while providing almost no real protection against bugs.
Ben Houston • March 25, 2025
Learn how to develop 3D web applications that work reliably across all devices using real-world browser capability data from Web3DSurvey.com with a practical two-tier development strategy.
Ben Houston • March 24, 2025
Exploring the simplest possible implementation of an agentic coder using just 200 lines of TypeScript, demonstrating foundational concepts clearly and concisely.
Ben Houston • March 21, 2025
How to build an autonomous agentic coder that leverages advanced LLMs to transform software development. A talk given at the Ottawa Forward JS meet-up.
Ben Houston • March 20, 2025
As AI dramatically reduces software development costs, we need to rethink our approach to code. Software is becoming ephemeral - easily replaced rather than maintained. This paradigm shift means optimizing for current needs instead of hypothetical futures.
Ben Houston • March 17, 2025
AI agents are moving beyond IDEs into full automation of coding workflows. Discover how integrating agentic coding into GitHub Actions can streamline software development -- turning issues into PRs and automating documentation, tests, and even code reviews, all through simple GitHub comments.
Ben Houston • March 13, 2025
Adding GitHub Mode to MyCoder has radically improved my productivity, making my agentic coder feel like a true team member. By leveraging GitHub for task tracking, pull requests, and CI/CD feedback, I’ve seen a 3x to 5x boost in development efficiency.
Ben Houston • March 7, 2025
Adapting your codebase to match AI coder assumptions doesn't just help AI -- it uncovers hidden complexity, ultimately benefiting human developers.
Ben Houston • March 6, 2025
As AI coding agents become increasingly capable, we need to rethink our code organization and documentation practices. Here's why traditional "human-first" coding approaches are becoming obsolete and how to structure your projects for optimal AI compatibility.
Ben Houston • March 5, 2025
Why TanStack/Start may be the right choice for your next project. Exploring the unique features of TanStack/Start in comparison to Remix, and Next.js.
Ben Houston • February 18, 2025
Open Core combines the viral growth of open source with the revenue potential of enterprise software – but most founders get the balance wrong. Drawing from my experience building both open source and enterprise products, I explain why this model particularly shines for developer tools, and how to execute it without alienating either developers or paying customers.
Ben Houston • December 20, 2024
From solving a unique rendering challenge for a single film to becoming an industry-standard tool used in blockbuster movies like Avatar and Harry Potter, the origin story of the Krakatoa point renderer.
Ben Houston • December 6, 2024
Sometimes big opportunities come from solving what seem like minor problems. In 2002, fresh out of university, I accidentally co-created what would become one of the most widely-used tools in Hollywood visual effects - all because I needed a better way to run fluid simulations.
Ben Houston • December 5, 2024
After learning the hard way that chasing startups and SMBs was a dead end, I discovered why the path to sustainable SaaS growth lies in mastering enterprise sales and the 'land and expand' strategy.
Ben Houston • December 5, 2024
How a pioneering web-based 3D editor pivoted from trying to revolutionizing visual effects to finding unexpected success in enterprise product visualization.
Ben Houston • December 4, 2024
A startup journey can naturally be split into two phases, each driven by a different question: survival and then maybe scale.
Ben Houston • December 2, 2024
Kubernetes often represents the ultimate solution for container orchestration, but my experience has led me to leave it behind in favor of a simpler, cost-effective solution using Google Cloud Run.
Ben Houston • November 5, 2024
RISC-V is currently quite slow compared to modern CPUs in 2024.
Ben Houston • October 23, 2024
Web3DSurvey is a tool for 3D web developers that tracks and aggregates WebGL, WebGL2, and WebGPU capabilities providing valuable insights into real-world support for these features.
Ben Houston • September 1, 2024
Graph-based materials, while innovative and flexible, pose significant costs for run-time dynamic loading in Web and Games. We delve into these costs and propose alternative solutions.
Ben Houston • May 30, 2023
Understand the background and potential future of the evolving Khronos glTF PBR material definition.
Ben Houston • October 25, 2022
