AI Pricing Is Becoming UX
GPT-5.6 turns capability into a price ladder, while Codex Spark turns speed into a separate button. AI pricing is becoming part of the interface.
Read the pieceKahWee Teng · Staff software engineer
Complex systems deserve clear thinking.
I work on frontend systems and developer experience, then write about what the diagrams leave out: migrations, performance, AI-assisted engineering, and the tradeoffs that make software last.
Bearings
KahWee in 30 seconds
- Role
- Staff software engineer
- Focus
- Frontend systems + developer experience
- Journal
- 91 field notes since 2016
- Perspective
- Singapore → San Francisco
Working terrain
Experience, shown through the work.
Four recurring questions, each grounded in a piece that shows the decisions, evidence, and tradeoffs behind it.
Evaluating a TanStack Table v9 Upgrade
I wanted to keep a shared table component current without accepting migration work on faith. A side-by-side benchmark made the trade-off much easier to judge.
Read the pieceMigrating from Remix to React Router v7 - Part 1
My Remix-to-React Router v7 migration touched 40 files and removed 591 net lines. Imports were easy; TypeScript took the time.
Read the piece
Why Adobe Animate's Flash-to-HTML5 Bridge Failed
Adobe Animate kept the Flash timeline alive for HTML5, but the web moved on. Maintenance mode confirms the bridge could not hold.
Read the pieceFrom the trail
Latest field notes
Optimizing Cubbly After Moving Away from SSR
Removing SSR simplified Cubbly but delayed useful inventory. I compared four client-loading compositions and kept the one that made real route content 31–42% faster.
Removing React SSR from Cubbly to Simplify Lingui
I removed React SSR from Cubbly because maintaining Lingui across the Worker and browser was not worth the speed it bought on a private application.
Choosing When Hermes Agent Automations Need an LLM
I use Hermes Agent to interpret and configure automations, then let Home Assistant or a script execute repeatable actions with visible failure states.
AI Pricing Is Becoming UX
GPT-5.6 turns capability into a price ladder, while Codex Spark turns speed into a separate button. AI pricing is becoming part of the interface.