Hi, I’m Brij Pandey.
I’m a Principal Engineer and AI Architect with 17+ years of experience building data platforms, backend systems and, more recently, enterprise generative AI: RAG platforms, AI agents and the governance that keeps them safe in production.
I started The Applied Stack because most AI content falls into one of two groups. It’s either hype with no substance, or research papers that don’t say how to use the idea at work. I write for the space in between: people who want to use AI to do real work, in any industry.
What you’ll get every week
Explained: clear breakdowns of how things actually work: RAG, agents, agent harnesses, MCP and evals
Build Log: step-by-step builds with working code, from retrieval pipelines to full agent harnesses
AI in Practice: lessons from forward-deployed work: what held up with real customers, what broke, and why
The Filter: the new AI developments that matter this week, and what they mean for builders
Who it’s for: engineers, architects, product builders, founders, and anyone who wants AI to do useful work instead of just demos.
Free cheat sheet: subscribe and get The Practical RAG and AI Agents Cheat Sheet: production settings, real benchmark numbers and copy-paste prompt templates.
Reply to any email and tell me what you’re building. I read every one.
