I was an early adopter of the home 3D printer movement, but like many, I suffered from the “I want to create cool prints, not become a printer engineer” conundrum. I spent more time tinkering with the machine than coming up with cool designs, and eventually, my interest waned.
Flash-forward a dozen years (or so), and we have new and improved 3D printers that let us “keep the main thing, the main thing.” Less time fixing the machine, more time designing and printing.
And I have to tell you, it’s been a blast.
There’s something incredibly satisfying about dreaming up a small project, sending it to the printer, and watching it just work. Suddenly, I have more time to explore the things I actually wanted to create in the first place.
Funny thing is, this little 3D printing adventure has started to feel awfully familiar to another adventure I’ve recently embarked upon.
Agentic development in FileMaker.
The Tools Come First
One of the first things I printed with my new printer was a handful of tools to make printing even better.
A container to catch 3D print poop. Yes, poop. Look it up!
Then came a scraper to keep the print bed clean. Calipers, wire-wranglers, printer stabilizers, and on and on it went.
Before long, I realized I was spending a surprising amount of time printing things that helped me print other things.
Not exactly the awesome, multicolor masterpiece I had originally envisioned.
But here’s the thing: every one of those little tools made the next print easier, more efficient, or simply more enjoyable.
I was building my printing infrastructure.
And as I’ve been exploring agentic development, I’ve realized that’s exactly where I want to spend some of my time as a FileMaker developer.
Same Story, Different Machine
Ever since agentic development entered the FileMaker lexicon, developers have been exploring ways to bring these exciting new capabilities into our beloved ecosystem.
First came exporting XML files and sharing them with our agents, giving them insight into solutions we’ve spent years building. Suddenly, we could ask questions that previously went unasked, or hunt down answers that had been forever lost in the proverbial haystack.
The more adventurous among us started experimenting early on (before ADT) with generating scripts and moving them into FileMaker any way we could, saving ourselves some of the repetitive work along the way, even when that meant manually re-typing them directly into FMP.
And naturally, we started wondering: what if these two worlds could work together more directly?
Soliant is participating in the beta for the new Agentic Development Tool (ADT), and while there are things I can’t share just yet, I can tell you this: the opportunity to explore how an agent can work alongside a FileMaker developer has me genuinely excited.
Of course, my first instinct was to think BIG.
That troublesome relationship graph. The dashboard I’ve always wanted to build. That nagging problem I’ve never quite had the time to solve.
You know, our own personal white whales.
But then I remembered my printer.
Before attempting that 36-hour, six-color masterpiece, maybe I should print a scraper.
Printing a Few Tools for FileMaker
Tool #1: Getting a Head Start on the Work
Ever open a new development ticket and realize that before you can actually solve the problem, you need to figure out what the problem is?
Read the ticket. Review the requirements. Find the right project documentation. Identify unanswered questions. Make a plan.
It’s important work, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a head start?
One of the skills I’ve been working with takes a Jira ticket, gathers its information, locates the appropriate project folder, and creates a working document with a summary, open questions, and a to-do list.
Not particularly glamorous, perhaps, but useful.
And here’s where things get interesting.
Imagine taking that prepared document and using it as the starting point for an agent that can explore the FileMaker solution itself. Rather than beginning with a blank slate, the agent already has context, questions, and a direction.
The preparation work becomes part of the development process.
That’s a pretty handy scraper.
Tool #2: Building the File Before Building the File
Ever sit down to create a brand-new FileMaker file and realize you’re about to spend the next hour setting up everything except the thing you actually wanted to build?
Globals table. Favorite theme. Script templates. Custom functions. Security accounts. Layouts.
And don’t forget color-coding those table occurrences, especially those pesky cascading-delete relationships!
Shoot, sometimes it feels like we’ve built half the solution before we’ve even started working on the reason we created it.
I’ve accumulated years of preferences, templates, and little development habits. Some are documented. Some are tucked away in older files. Others are rattling around somewhere in my head.
So why not teach an agent how I like to work?
That’s the idea behind another skill I’ve been developing: capturing my preferred FileMaker starting environment in reusable instructions.
Instead of remembering which old file contains my favorite theme or which custom functions accompany a particular script template, I can document those dependencies and give my agent a repeatable process to follow.
And as the tools evolve, so can the skill.
The exciting part isn’t simply saving a few clicks. It’s taking years of accumulated development knowledge and making it reusable.
Tool #3: Making Sense of the Spider Web
And then there’s the relationship graph.
You know the one.
The legacy solution that’s been around forever. Table occurrences scattered across the canvas. Relationships added by developers who may have moved on years ago.
Somewhere in that spider web is the answer you’re looking for.
Probably.
One of the more ambitious skills I’m exploring is a relationship graph audit. The goal is to examine table occurrences, identify potentially orphaned or problematic relationships, and help evaluate the graph against organizational conventions such as anchor-buoy.
Think of it as giving an agent a flashlight and sending it into the attic.
I’m not looking to hand over the keys and let it reorganize years of development history without supervision. I want a knowledgeable assistant that can help identify areas worth investigating and present findings for a developer to review.
And yes, this is exactly the kind of experiment that requires testing, refinement, and a healthy dose of skepticism.
Which brings me back to my printer.
Sometimes the Print Doesn’t Work
The first few things I printed came out beautifully.
Then I found a project that didn’t quite agree with my printer. Wrong approach, perhaps the wrong nozzle, or simply the wrong expectations.
Time to make some adjustments.
Working with an agent has felt similar.
You develop a skill, give it instructions, and imagine how wonderfully everything is going to work.
Then reality introduces itself.
Maybe your instructions weren’t specific enough. Maybe you overlooked a dependency. Maybe the task requires a different approach entirely.
So you refine the skill, test again, and learn something along the way.
That’s part of the adventure.
The goal isn’t to have an agent that magically gets everything right the first time. It’s to develop a productive working relationship with a tool that can become increasingly useful as you learn how to guide it.
And that learning doesn’t have to wait for ADT.
Preparing for Your Printer
When I decided to get back into 3D printing, my wife and I agreed that a new printer would make a great birthday present.
Perfectly reasonable arrangement.
Except now I had to wait.
So what did I do?
I prepared!
Where would the printer go? What would I print first? Second? Third?
I started learning about drawer-organizing grids, planning projects, and getting everything ready so that when the printer arrived, I could hit the ground running.
Marie Kondo, eat your heart out.
I think FileMaker developers should approach ADT the same way.
You don’t need to wait for access to start preparing.
Here are a few things you can do today:
- Document your development habits. Think about the things you do every time you create a file, write a script, or begin a project. Your naming conventions, templates, and preferred workflows are great candidates for reusable agent instructions.
- Build a skill or two. Pick a small, repeatable task and experiment with teaching an agent how to perform it. Don’t worry about creating the ultimate development assistant on your first attempt. Print the scraper.
- Start collecting your unanswered questions. Every legacy solution has its mysteries. What would you love to know about your own FileMaker environment if you had an assistant capable of helping investigate it?
- Learn to provide better context. Experiment with the tools available today. Give an agent appropriate exports, documentation, and clear instructions. Pay attention to what it understands, what it misses, and how refining your instructions changes the results.
- Prepare a safe playground. Development copies, backups, version control, and a plan for reviewing changes are important when experimenting with tools that may eventually help modify your solutions. Faster development is wonderful. Faster mistakes? Not so much.
None of this requires waiting for the next release.
And every little bit of preparation puts you in a better position to take advantage of what’s coming.
So, What Are You Waiting For?
I started this latest 3D printing adventure dreaming about all the awesome things I could create.
And I still have that list.
But somewhere along the way, I discovered that making a few simple tools could make every future project a little easier.
That’s what has me so excited about agentic development.
Not just the possibility of solving that giant, complicated problem we’ve been staring at for years, but the opportunity to improve all the little things we do along the way.
So while you’re waiting, start preparing your agent for tomorrow.
Write down your favorite development patterns. Build a skill. Identify a few things you’d happily never do manually again.
Because when the opportunity finally arrives, you don’t want to be sitting there wondering, “Shoot, now what do I do?”
Of course, the only proper answer is:
Everything!
