![Weekly Recap: .NET Pipelines, EF Core Specifications, and RAG Evaluation [Sep 2026]](https://devleader-d2f9ggbjfpdqcka7.z01.azurefd.net/media/SquareBanner.webp)
This week: Dive into .NET processing pipelines, including dependency injection, unit testing, middleware comparisons, and System.IO.Pipelines. Explore EF Core specifications for querying and domain rules, plus practical RAG query transformation and evaluation. The videos cover AI-assisted development, agentic flow design, internships, QA pressure, imposter syndrome, and career fulfillment.
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Weekly Recap
How Do I Return To My Internship As A Product Manager?
In this video, I respond to a question about returning to an internship as a PM instead of as a developer.
Can I Blindly Trust AI With My Code Yet?
In this video, I talk about some of the patterns in my development flow for giving AI more trust, and how the gaps get closed.
Is Loop Engineering Is Converging On How I Like To Build?
In this video, I talk about some of my shifts in development using AI agents, offloading work, and how loop engineering is progressing for me.
The Problem With Mixing Determinism In Agentic Flows
In this video, I talk about some of my challenges optimizing agentic flows where determinism wants to mix in.
It Takes Me Longer Than Other Devs... Am I An Imposter?
In this video, we talk through imposter syndrome from a question that came from the comments.
Pressure From My Director Makes QA The WORST
From the ExperiencedDevs subreddit, this developer wanted perspectives on the SLDC and how QA integrates.
The Truth About Starting a Career in Software Engineering
In this video, I respond to a submitted question about pursuing a career in software development.
Is Anyone Actually Fulfilled With A Software Engineering Career?
From the ExperiencedDevs subreddit, this developer wanted perspectives on how others are feeling fulfillment in their careers.
Pipeline Pattern vs System.IO.Pipelines in .NET
Compare the Pipeline Pattern vs System.IO.Pipelines in .NET, including PipeReader, PipeWriter, byte-buffer ownership, flow control, parsing, and completion.
EF Core Specifications for Includes, Projection, and Tracking
Learn how EF Core specifications can shape DTO projections, deliberate includes, tracking behavior, and single or split queries without over-fetching.
Golden Evaluation Sets for RAG: Synthetic Data, Human Calibration, and Drift
Build a trustworthy RAG golden dataset in .NET with versioned evidence, synthetic-case review, human sentinel calibration, and drift-driven refreshes.
Pipeline vs Chain of Responsibility vs ASP.NET Core Middleware
Compare Pipeline, Chain of Responsibility, and ASP.NET Core middleware by transformation, handler selection, continuation, ordering, and short-circuiting.
Ardalis.Specification With EF Core: Current Guide
Ardalis.Specification tutorial for version 9.3.1 with EF Core, covering DbContext and repository use, current APIs, limitations, and compatibility caveats.
RAG Evaluation Metrics in .NET: Measure Retrieval and Grounding
Learn RAG evaluation metrics in .NET with Precision@K, Recall@K, MRR, nDCG, groundedness, and answer relevance for clearer, repeatable offline RAG diagnostics.
How To Unit Test a C# Processing Pipeline
Learn how to unit test C# processing pipeline behavior with deterministic checks for order, rejection, faults, cancellation, capacity, drain, and cleanup.
Using Specifications for Domain Rules and Validation
Specification Pattern DDD validation uses pure C# rules while structured results, request checks, and aggregate invariant enforcement stay clearly separate.
RAG Query Transformation in .NET: HyDE, Step-Back, and Decomposition
Learn RAG query transformation in .NET through baseline retrieval, HyDE, step-back abstraction, decomposition, candidate merging, and retrieval evaluation.
Register Pipeline Stages With .NET Dependency Injection
Learn how to register ordered pipeline stages with Microsoft DI, choose safe service lifetimes, create background scopes, and avoid captive dependencies.
Specification vs Repository vs Query Object in .NET
Compare Specification, Repository, and Query Object in .NET, then place predicates, GoF patterns, validation, policies, and rules engines correctly in code.
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