At Nacelle, we believe that engineering excellence doesn’t come from bloated teams or endless resources - it comes from focus, precision, and velocity. While other companies are scaling their headcount, we’re scaling our impact. By leveraging AI and a framework we’ve fine-tuned, we empower a small team of senior engineers to achieve once unimaginable results.
“Cash may be king, but velocity is queen, and she makes all the critical moves on the chessboard.”
Brian Anderson, CEO and Founder of Nacelle
In this post, we’ll show you how Nacelle’s unique engineering process is rewriting the rules of AI development, empowering engineers to do the best work of their careers, and driving Nacelle’s position as a thought leader in e-commerce AI.
The Challenge of AI in Engineering
AI is transforming the way software is built. It promises to enhance productivity, reduce manual effort, and unlock creativity for engineers. But it’s not without its challenges. Current AI tools have limitations:
- Hallucinations: AI can generate code that "looks right" but doesn’t work.
- Context Limitations: Most AI systems can only "see" a small portion of a codebase, making them less effective for larger projects.
- Fragility: AI-generated code can be error-prone and difficult to debug without safeguards.
At Nacelle, we’ve embraced these challenges and turned them into opportunities. By combining modern AI tools with the right engineering processes, we’ve built a framework that ensures every engineer works more innovative, faster and better.
The 7 Ingredients of Nacelle’s AI Framework
These principles may not be novel, but the magic happens in their combination. Together, they create an environment where AI becomes a force multiplier, amplifying the impact of every engineer.
- Test-Driven Development (TDD)
At Nacelle, TDD is non-negotiable. It serves as a safety net that ensures AI doesn’t just speed up coding but enhances its quality. AI is powerful but can also hallucinate - producing code that doesn’t pass muster. A robust test suite catches these errors, ensuring engineers can iterate quickly and confidently deploy. - Microservices Over Monoliths
Monolithic systems may work for some, but their size makes them impractical for modern AI development. At Nacelle, we design microservices that fit within an AI’s context window. We enable more brilliant, contextual development by squashing an entire service into the AI’s focus. Monolithic systems, with millions of tokens, simply can’t achieve this advantage. - AI-Powered Development
Tools like Copilot are helpful for minor fixes - adding imports and writing documentation - but they’re not enough for actual AI superpower development. Instead, we push the limits by integrating the entire codebase into the AI’s context. The results? Game-changing insights, smarter refactoring, and faster development cycles.
Our deep integration of AI in the development process doesn't just make us more efficient - it directly enhances our products. The insights, best practices, and innovations we discover while using AI in our engineering workflow become the foundation for how we implement AI features in our e-commerce solutions. This creates a powerful feedback loop: as our engineers push the boundaries of AI-assisted development, our products become more intelligent and capable. This firsthand experience with AI at the engineering level gives us unique insights into building AI-powered e-commerce tools that truly deliver value to our clients. - Trunk-Only Development
We streamline collaboration with trunk-only development, avoiding the complexity of long-lived branches. This ensures every engineer works in sync, making rapid progress without conflicts or bottlenecks. - Feature Flag Deployment
Controlled rollouts allow us to confidently deploy features, toggling functionality on or off instantly for testing or safety. - Advanced CI/CD Pipeline
Automated pipelines handle testing, validation, and deployment, ensuring that every AI-enhanced line of code is delivered seamlessly. - Infrastructure as Code
Our fully automated infrastructure provides consistent, repeatable environments that let engineers focus on what they do best—building.
Case Study: Revolutionizing RBAC Development
What is RBAC?
Role-based access Control (RBAC) is the backbone of security. It manages user permissions and ensures systems are safe yet flexible. It’s a complex, critical system that demands precision and robustness.
The Traditional Approach
Building an RBAC system typically takes 4-6 months with a dedicated team of engineers. It requires designing, implementing, testing, and deploying a scalable solution.
Nacelle’s Approach
Using our AI framework, Brian Anderson, Nacelle’s CEO, single-handedly built and deployed a fully functional RBAC system in just 3.5 weeks. This wasn’t a stripped-down version - it’s a complete, battle-tested solution that includes:
- A Python package for authentication across microservices.
- A decorator-based approach that makes route protection effortless.
The Results
This represents a tenfold increase in efficiency, delivering a better solution in record time. It’s a testament to the power of combining TDD, microservices, and AI-powered development.
Why Nacelle is an Engineer’s Dream
- Small Team, Big Impact
At Nacelle, every engineer’s work has an outsized impact. Each commit contributes directly to our success, and there are opportunities to collaborate closely with Brian Anderson (CEO), Dana Fadel (Product Lead), and Mary Rado (Engineering Lead). - AI-Driven Efficiency
AI ensures that Nacelle remains a small, nimble team, even as we scale. Engineers here solve high-value problems while AI handles repetitive tasks. - A Culture of Innovation
Our engineers don’t just write code - they push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Mary Rado’s Perspective
"The combination of TDD, microservices, and AI-powered development at Nacelle creates a unique engineering environment. You’re not just building features - you’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. By using modern AI to its fullest, the energy is high, and the excitement is never-ending."
Future Vision: Velocity Wins
As Brian Anderson puts it:
"Companies that adopt this process will have clear and distinct competitive advantages over those that do not. Cash is king, but velocity is queen, and she makes all the important moves on the chessboard."
At Nacelle, we’re not just building for today - we’re shaping the future of e-commerce AI. Our framework enables unparalleled speed, precision, and innovation, setting us apart in a rapidly evolving industry.
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