James Cowling
@jamescowling.dev
@convex.dev co-founder/CTO. Dropbox storage designer. Distributed systems researcher at MIT. Bad motorcycle mechanic. Database shill.
Reposted by James Cowling
Convex @convex.dev is quickly becoming the go-to sync engine for startups building AI and agentic apps. At Sync Conf 2025, co-founder James Cowling @jamescowling.dev will share how they’re making it happen.
October 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Convex @convex.dev is quickly becoming the go-to sync engine for startups building AI and agentic apps. At Sync Conf 2025, co-founder James Cowling @jamescowling.dev will share how they’re making it happen.
Convex Chef supports Gemini 2.5 Pro! It's sometimes too verbose and occasionally forgets to call tools but produces way better UIs and seems able to build more fully-featured apps than Claude. Try it out!
April 21, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Convex Chef supports Gemini 2.5 Pro! It's sometimes too verbose and occasionally forgets to call tools but produces way better UIs and seems able to build more fully-featured apps than Claude. Try it out!
LLMs love writing @convex_dev code so we made an app-builder to let them do it.
Convex Chef: The AI builder that knows backend.
Get cooking...
Convex Chef: The AI builder that knows backend.
Get cooking...
April 10, 2025 at 9:55 PM
LLMs love writing @convex_dev code so we made an app-builder to let them do it.
Convex Chef: The AI builder that knows backend.
Get cooking...
Convex Chef: The AI builder that knows backend.
Get cooking...
Ain't no one got time to log in to stuff. Now you can use @convex.dev without an account! Just npm i convex and npx convex dev.
April 9, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Ain't no one got time to log in to stuff. Now you can use @convex.dev without an account! Just npm i convex and npx convex dev.
Building an AI agent or need a durable workflow? Day 2 of @convex.dev Vibe Week is dedicated to you.
New agent framework and durable workflow engine ready to go, check out links in the reply.
New agent framework and durable workflow engine ready to go, check out links in the reply.
April 8, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Building an AI agent or need a durable workflow? Day 2 of @convex.dev Vibe Week is dedicated to you.
New agent framework and durable workflow engine ready to go, check out links in the reply.
New agent framework and durable workflow engine ready to go, check out links in the reply.
Day 1 of @convex.dev Vibe Week is a go! Announcing official release of our MCP server folks have been trialing. Check out the vid and the links in the reply. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
April 7, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Day 1 of @convex.dev Vibe Week is a go! Announcing official release of our MCP server folks have been trialing. Check out the vid and the links in the reply. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
Convex has a referral program! Double your free quota by referring someone or applying a referral. Refer up to 5 people and get a bump each time.
Find your referral link under Team Settings in your dashboard, or if you're fast you can use mine: www.convex.dev/referral/JAM....
Find your referral link under Team Settings in your dashboard, or if you're fast you can use mine: www.convex.dev/referral/JAM....
Someone thinks you’re a great fit for Convex!
Get Convex resources for free with this referral code.
www.convex.dev
March 27, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Convex has a referral program! Double your free quota by referring someone or applying a referral. Refer up to 5 people and get a bump each time.
Find your referral link under Team Settings in your dashboard, or if you're fast you can use mine: www.convex.dev/referral/JAM....
Find your referral link under Team Settings in your dashboard, or if you're fast you can use mine: www.convex.dev/referral/JAM....
Remember when a beta label actually meant something then Gmail was beta for half a decade and ruined it for everyone?
We just took a bunch of @convex.dev features out of beta. What's the point of long-term beta if customers depend on it already?
We just took a bunch of @convex.dev features out of beta. What's the point of long-term beta if customers depend on it already?
March 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Remember when a beta label actually meant something then Gmail was beta for half a decade and ruined it for everyone?
We just took a bunch of @convex.dev features out of beta. What's the point of long-term beta if customers depend on it already?
We just took a bunch of @convex.dev features out of beta. What's the point of long-term beta if customers depend on it already?
Your coding agent talking directly to your production database sounds sketchy as hell... unless it's via an MCP server on a db that supports sandboxed code execution, in which case it sounds cool af.
@convex.dev now has an MCP server! the cursor AI agent can now list project's schema and API, read data from tables, and call functions.
it's insane how good it is at gluing tool calls together. here's an example of it building a histogram of a message lengths in a chat app.
it's insane how good it is at gluing tool calls together. here's an example of it building a histogram of a message lengths in a chat app.
March 4, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Your coding agent talking directly to your production database sounds sketchy as hell... unless it's via an MCP server on a db that supports sandboxed code execution, in which case it sounds cool af.
Ok this is legitimately cool. Cursor talking to @convex.dev via MCP and figuring out schema improvements based on the rows actually stored in the database, performed in constant time!
March 3, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Ok this is legitimately cool. Cursor talking to @convex.dev via MCP and figuring out schema improvements based on the rows actually stored in the database, performed in constant time!
We launched Fullstack-Bench yesterday to test autonomous agent performance on fullstack coding tasks. Starting with Convex, FastAPI, Supabase but more backends to come.
stack.convex.dev/introducing-...
Three design patterns stood out at producing high quality code with minimal interventions:
🧵
stack.convex.dev/introducing-...
Three design patterns stood out at producing high quality code with minimal interventions:
🧵
Introducing Fullstack-Bench
Coding agents can do more autonomously when they write code that has tight, automatic feedback loops; use systems that express everything in standard,...
stack.convex.dev
February 25, 2025 at 6:54 PM
We launched Fullstack-Bench yesterday to test autonomous agent performance on fullstack coding tasks. Starting with Convex, FastAPI, Supabase but more backends to come.
stack.convex.dev/introducing-...
Three design patterns stood out at producing high quality code with minimal interventions:
🧵
stack.convex.dev/introducing-...
Three design patterns stood out at producing high quality code with minimal interventions:
🧵
Do you like TypeScript? Do you like databases? Do you like neither but just want to build apps using regular old functions?
My @db.cs.cmu.edu talk on TypeScript Stored Procedures for app developers is online now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgV...
My @db.cs.cmu.edu talk on TypeScript Stored Procedures for app developers is online now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgV...
February 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Do you like TypeScript? Do you like databases? Do you like neither but just want to build apps using regular old functions?
My @db.cs.cmu.edu talk on TypeScript Stored Procedures for app developers is online now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgV...
My @db.cs.cmu.edu talk on TypeScript Stored Procedures for app developers is online now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgV...
Convex also now members of the Open Source Pledge @opensourcepledge.com, committing to financially support development of open software we all benefit from.
Our initial contribution was towards @tanstack.com! Really glad to be supporting @tannerlinsley.com and crew.
news.convex.dev/open-source-...
Our initial contribution was towards @tanstack.com! Really glad to be supporting @tannerlinsley.com and crew.
news.convex.dev/open-source-...
Joining the Open Source Pledge
Today, Convex is taking a meaningful step to support the open source ecosystem we rely on. We're joining the Open Source Pledge, a coalition of companies committed to funding the open foundations of m...
news.convex.dev
February 13, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Convex also now members of the Open Source Pledge @opensourcepledge.com, committing to financially support development of open software we all benefit from.
Our initial contribution was towards @tanstack.com! Really glad to be supporting @tannerlinsley.com and crew.
news.convex.dev/open-source-...
Our initial contribution was towards @tanstack.com! Really glad to be supporting @tannerlinsley.com and crew.
news.convex.dev/open-source-...
We just launched self-hosted @convex.dev! We open sourced last year but realized the code was open but not so useful on its own. This time we've included the Convex dashboard, bindings for Postgres, SQLite (and MySQL v. soon), packaged up in a docker container ready for real use
February 13, 2025 at 5:31 PM
We just launched self-hosted @convex.dev! We open sourced last year but realized the code was open but not so useful on its own. This time we've included the Convex dashboard, bindings for Postgres, SQLite (and MySQL v. soon), packaged up in a docker container ready for real use
CMU Databases talk streaming live 4:30EST Monday.
Come learn how every good idea you have was already invented by someone in the 80s and why we should be running typescript functions in our databases.
db.cs.cmu.edu/events/sql-d...
Come learn how every good idea you have was already invented by someone in the 80s and why we should be running typescript functions in our databases.
db.cs.cmu.edu/events/sql-d...
February 7, 2025 at 9:27 PM
CMU Databases talk streaming live 4:30EST Monday.
Come learn how every good idea you have was already invented by someone in the 80s and why we should be running typescript functions in our databases.
db.cs.cmu.edu/events/sql-d...
Come learn how every good idea you have was already invented by someone in the 80s and why we should be running typescript functions in our databases.
db.cs.cmu.edu/events/sql-d...
Reposted by James Cowling
I used AI to write a script to help me write AI evals
to help AI write Convex code. Very meta
💡Each step uses RAG from previous evals
Flow:
1. 🧑💻oneliner -> 🤖 task description -> 🧑💻 audit
2. 🤖 answer ->🧑💻 audit
3. 🤖 tests for answer ->🧑💻 audit
🔗 to evals 👀 & my script in 🧵
to help AI write Convex code. Very meta
💡Each step uses RAG from previous evals
Flow:
1. 🧑💻oneliner -> 🤖 task description -> 🧑💻 audit
2. 🤖 answer ->🧑💻 audit
3. 🤖 tests for answer ->🧑💻 audit
🔗 to evals 👀 & my script in 🧵
GitHub - get-convex/convex-evals
Contribute to get-convex/convex-evals development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
January 31, 2025 at 11:44 PM
I used AI to write a script to help me write AI evals
to help AI write Convex code. Very meta
💡Each step uses RAG from previous evals
Flow:
1. 🧑💻oneliner -> 🤖 task description -> 🧑💻 audit
2. 🤖 answer ->🧑💻 audit
3. 🤖 tests for answer ->🧑💻 audit
🔗 to evals 👀 & my script in 🧵
to help AI write Convex code. Very meta
💡Each step uses RAG from previous evals
Flow:
1. 🧑💻oneliner -> 🤖 task description -> 🧑💻 audit
2. 🤖 answer ->🧑💻 audit
3. 🤖 tests for answer ->🧑💻 audit
🔗 to evals 👀 & my script in 🧵
A good design principle is APIs that look cheap should be cheap and APIs that are expensive should look expensive.
One mistake we made in an old version of Dropbox was that directory moves looked cheap (drag a folder) but were expensive on the server (update metadata for every file in the tree).
One mistake we made in an old version of Dropbox was that directory moves looked cheap (drag a folder) but were expensive on the server (update metadata for every file in the tree).
January 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
A good design principle is APIs that look cheap should be cheap and APIs that are expensive should look expensive.
One mistake we made in an old version of Dropbox was that directory moves looked cheap (drag a folder) but were expensive on the server (update metadata for every file in the tree).
One mistake we made in an old version of Dropbox was that directory moves looked cheap (drag a folder) but were expensive on the server (update metadata for every file in the tree).
Got to sit down with Professor @andypavlo.bsky.social on the latest @convex.dev Databased podcast for his 2024 databases year in review!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-M...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-M...
What You Missed in 2024 in the World of Databases, with Andy Pavlo
YouTube video by Convex
www.youtube.com
January 24, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Got to sit down with Professor @andypavlo.bsky.social on the latest @convex.dev Databased podcast for his 2024 databases year in review!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-M...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-M...
If you want to get good building systems and databases you should go work for a bigger company or a startup with serious infra demands. It's hard to develop excellence thinking about scale, correctness and architecture in an environment where these aren't critical to the business
January 22, 2025 at 7:53 PM
If you want to get good building systems and databases you should go work for a bigger company or a startup with serious infra demands. It's hard to develop excellence thinking about scale, correctness and architecture in an environment where these aren't critical to the business
It's easy to roll your eyes at Company Values but hopefully you actually value *something*. A good set of values can have a huge enduring impact on decision-making at a company.
I wrote a guide on the process I follow for picking values at a company stack.convex.dev/company-values
I wrote a guide on the process I follow for picking values at a company stack.convex.dev/company-values
Company Values that Matter
A good set of values can be critically important in establishing a team that stands for something. This post outlines why company values are important...
stack.convex.dev
December 4, 2024 at 9:16 PM
It's easy to roll your eyes at Company Values but hopefully you actually value *something*. A good set of values can have a huge enduring impact on decision-making at a company.
I wrote a guide on the process I follow for picking values at a company stack.convex.dev/company-values
I wrote a guide on the process I follow for picking values at a company stack.convex.dev/company-values
Can't talk right now. Busy arguing on Reddit with someone who will inevitably turn out to be a child.
November 24, 2024 at 8:51 PM
Can't talk right now. Busy arguing on Reddit with someone who will inevitably turn out to be a child.