Sam Alba, co-founder of Mendral, joins the show to discuss their new AI agents that act as “junior devops engineers” against GitHub Actions, security, failed tests, and more.

Check out the video podcast version here: https://youtu.be/zHmE6VpWD7o

🙌 The Agentic DevOps Guild has launched! It's a training + community + mentorship program for engineers wanting to learn the latest CI/CD automation and dive into Agentic DevOps. Meetups are happening now, with new course videos dropping every few weeks. Join the Guild and become your team's leader in AI for infrastructure automation https://www.bretfisher.com/theguild 🍾

★Show Links★

• Mendral website

Creators & Guests

• Bret Fisher - Host
• Beth Fisher - Producer
• Cristi Cotovan - Editor
• Sam Alba - Guest

You can also support this podcast by subscribing to my YouTube channel and my weekly newsletter at bret.news!

Grab the best coupons for my Docker and Kubernetes courses on Udemy.
Join my cloud native DevOps community on Discord.
Grab some merch at Bret's Loot Box
Homepage bretfisher.com

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (05:16) - Why CI Needs Agents
• (20:18) - How Mendral Learns and Automates
• (44:21) - Trusting Auto Merge
• (51:52) - Guardrails And Delivery
• (01:00:17) - Harnesses And CLI Future
• (01:11:27) - Future of Mendral

My friend Brian Christner (Docker Captain alum) and I go through our AI harnesses, agents, models, and what we’re playing with right now. OpenClaw, OpenCode, Claude Code, Copilot, and all of it.

Check out the video podcast version here: https://youtu.be/8AFE0kxaY2k

🙌 The Agentic DevOps Guild has launched! It's a training + community + mentorship program for engineers wanting to learn the latest CI/CD automation and dive into Agentic DevOps. Meetups are happening now, with new course videos dropping every few weeks. Join the Guild and become your team's leader in AI for infrastructure automation https://www.bretfisher.com/theguild 🍾

★Show Links★

Brian’s Newsletter

Agents & Claude Code Setup

• Awesome Claude Code Subagents
• Agency Agents
• Claude Code Course
• OpenClaw alternative

Brian’s OpenClaw Projects

• OpenClaw Security Checklist
• Garmin Connect Skill
• OpenClaw Security Dashboard Skill

Creators & Guests

• Bret Fisher - Host
• Beth Fisher - Producer
• Cristi Cotovan - Editor
• Brian Christner - Guest

You can also support this podcast by subscribing to my YouTube channel and my weekly newsletter at bret.news!

Grab the best coupons for my Docker and Kubernetes courses on Udemy.
Join my cloud native DevOps community on Discord.
Grab some merch at Bret's Loot Box
Homepage bretfisher.com

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (03:01) - AI Tools and Skills Deep Dive
• (33:09) - Securing OpenClaw Servers
• (39:15) - Safe Use Cases and Token Control
• (50:00) - OpenClaw DOs and DON'Ts
• (55:28) - NanoClaw and Container Future

It’s been 6 months since the last episode, and it feels like everything has changed. Bret and Nirmal catch you up on the increasing pace of AI change, how it will likely affect DevOps engineers and platform builders, and what’s coming on the podcast.

Check out the video podcast version here: https://youtu.be/NkqAMAIW5ks

🙌 The Agentic DevOps Guild has launched! It's a training + community + mentorship program for engineers wanting to learn the latest CI/CD automation and dive into Agentic DevOps. Meetups are happening now, with new course videos dropping every few weeks. Join the Guild and become your team's leader in AI for infrastructure automation https://www.bretfisher.com/theguild 🍾

★Show Links★

• Agent Harness Skills https://agentskills.io
• Video of Gradel CEO "You can write code faster, can you deliver it faster?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOXNJ9_sHuM
• Is your team still hand-chiseling code? https://www.geocod.io/code-and-coordinates/2026-01-21-hand-chiseling-code/

Creators & Guests

• Bret Fisher - Host
• Beth Fisher - Producer
• Cristi Cotovan - Editor
• Nirmal Mehta - Host

You can also support this podcast by subscribing to my YouTube channel and my weekly newsletter at bret.news!

Grab the best coupons for my Docker and Kubernetes courses on Udemy.
Join my cloud native DevOps community on Discord.
Grab some merch at Bret's Loot Box
Homepage bretfisher.com

• (00:00) - ADOP - Feb 26, 2026
• (02:23) - Introduction
• (03:00) - Season Two Kickoff
• (04:34) - Productivity Debate and Two AI Camps
• (06:48) - Ops View from Dev Retreats
• (10:05) - Automation Debt and App Tsunami
• (16:29) - Frontier Models Changed Everything
• (22:29) - Red Pill vs Blue Pill Skepticism
• (25:31) - Three Focus Areas for DevOps
• (27:51) - GitHub Copilot and Agentic Workflows
• (31:17) - Harnesses That Run Longer
• (31:51) - Skills As SOPs
• (34:30) - Guardrails For App Tsunami
• (36:30) - Agent Orchestration a nd Kubernetes
• (37:50) - Shadow IT Goes AI
• (38:30) - Inner Loop Diagram Breakdown
• (40:54) - AI Code Review Councils
• (43:09) - Context Layer And Docs Debt
• (49:23) - Career Waves to Agent Ops
• (57:29) - Future Guests and Episodes
• (01:00:45) -