--- title: From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the... description: A conference talk by a Microsoft engineer exploring how the developer role is shifting from writing code to designing and orchestrating AI-powered systems. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the Developer Role is Changing — Chris Noring, Microsoft | daily.dev og:description: A conference talk by a Microsoft engineer exploring how the developer role is shifting from writing code to designing and orchestrating AI-powered systems. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QFrCqDWE7.png og:image:alt: From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the Developer Role is Changing — Chris Noring, Microsoft og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the Developer Role is Changing — Chris Noring, Microsoft **[AI Engineer](https://daily.dev/sources/aidotengineer)** · 23 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A conference talk by a Microsoft engineer exploring how the developer role is shifting from writing code to designing and orchestrating AI-powered systems. The speaker proposes a new workflow starting from the CLI, moving to the editor, and scaling via agent delegation. Key concepts covered include agents.md for high-level guardrails, skills as repeatable constrained recipes for agents, and custom agents with personas and tool access. Practical demos show GitHub Copilot CLI delegation and GitHub UI issue assignment to agents, with emphasis on keeping humans in the loop through draft PRs and approval gates. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the difference between a skill and a custom agent in GitHub Copilot? A skill is a self-contained, strictly constrained contract stored in a folder with a skill.md file, meant to be invoked repeatedly for a specific repeatable task without improvisation. A custom agent is a higher-level orchestrator with a persona, front matter defining tools and argument hints, the ability to reason, plan, use multiple skills, call MCP servers, and coordinate with other agents, typically placed in a .github/agents directory as a .agent file. _Developers weighing skills against custom agents for their workflow can track these agentic patterns on daily.dev._ ### What should an AGENTS.md file contain in a repository using AI coding agents? An AGENTS.md file provides high-level guidance covering repository intent, application architecture, and constraints, including explicit dos and don'ts such as never changing the architecture without permission. It typically states the tech stack, for example a finance app built with React and Tailwind, and serves as the bare-minimum guardrail every repo using AI agents should include. _Teams setting up guardrails for AI agents can follow patterns like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [From coder to orchestrator: How agents shift the role of a developer](https://daily.dev/posts/from-coder-to-orchestrator-how-agents-shift-the-role-of-a-developer-sk2e3cswg) · GitHub Blog · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Conductors to Orchestrators: The Future of Agentic Coding](https://daily.dev/posts/conductors-to-orchestrators-the-future-of-agentic-coding-aozxk13oy) · Elevate · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How AI Is Transforming the Role of Software Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-transforming-the-role-of-software-developers-dbpnwhekr) · C\# Corner · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#mcp](https://daily.dev/tags/mcp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the Developer Role is Changing — Chris Noring, Microsoft","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7"},"datePublished":"2026-07-11T14:02:28.276Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:15:31.567Z","description":"A conference talk by a Microsoft engineer exploring how the developer role is shifting from writing code to designing and orchestrating AI-powered systems. The...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GdvKNwMcfd0/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GdvKNwMcfd0/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"AI Engineer","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"AI Engineer","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--u5PucxNT--/f_auto/v1724338940/logos/aidotengineer","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/aidotengineer"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"github,ai-agents,ai-coding,mcp","timeRequired":"PT23M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the Developer Role is Changing — Chris Noring, Microsoft","description":"A conference talk by a Microsoft engineer exploring how the developer role is shifting from writing code to designing and orchestrating AI-powered systems. The...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GdvKNwMcfd0/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-11T14:02:28.276Z","duration":"PT23M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/QFrCqDWE7","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/GdvKNwMcfd0"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AI Engineer","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/aidotengineer"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"From Writing Code to Designing Systems: How the Developer Role is Changing — Chris Noring, Microsoft"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-writing-code-to-designing-systems-how-the-developer-role-is-changing-chris-noring-microsoft-qfrcqdwe7#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the difference between a skill and a custom agent in GitHub Copilot?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A skill is a self-contained, strictly constrained contract stored in a folder with a skill.md file, meant to be invoked repeatedly for a specific repeatable task without improvisation. A custom agent is a higher-level orchestrator with a persona, front matter defining tools and argument hints, the ability to reason, plan, use multiple skills, call MCP servers, and coordinate with other agents, typically placed in a .github/agents directory as a .agent file. Developers weighing skills against custom agents for their workflow can track these agentic patterns on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What should an AGENTS.md file contain in a repository using AI coding agents?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"An AGENTS.md file provides high-level guidance covering repository intent, application architecture, and constraints, including explicit dos and don'ts such as never changing the architecture without permission. It typically states the tech stack, for example a finance app built with React and Tailwind, and serves as the bare-minimum guardrail every repo using AI agents should include. Teams setting up guardrails for AI agents can follow patterns like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```