What Are You Delegating?

Every abstraction is a trade: it removes work by making decisions for you. Those decisions are still being made — just not by you, and not visibly. For each abstraction: what it genuinely handles, what remains yours, and the escape hatch.

An ORM An HTTP client or SDK A managed database or cloud platform An identity provider An LLM or coding agent A web framework A library function A managed message queue A cache A container runtime and orchestrator

const user = await userRepository.findByEmail(email)

Handles 5 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: Raw SQL for that query

An HTTP client or SDKAPI Design

const charge = await stripe.charges.create({ amount: 4990, currency: 'eur' })

Handles 5 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: The raw HTTP contract: method

A managed database or cloud platformArchitecture

$ cloud db create --engine postgres --size large --replicas 2

Handles 5 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: Metrics

An identity providerSecurity

const session = await auth.signIn({ email, password })

Handles 5 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: Your own authorization layer: explicit checks at the resource

An LLM or coding agentAgentic AI

"Add retries to the payment call and make it robust."

Handles 5 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: Your own engineering knowledge: the fundamentals that let you read the trace

A web frameworkArchitecture

app.post('/orders', validate(schema), async (req, res) => res.json(await createOrder(req.body)))

Handles 5 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: The lower-level runtime and protocol: the event loop

A library functionDSA

items.sort((a, b) => a.score - b.score)

Handles 4 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: The specific algorithm — counting sort

A managed message queueArchitecture

await queue.publish('order.created', { orderId })

Handles 4 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: The delivery semantics: acks

A cacheArchitecture

const product = await cache.wrap(`product:${id}`, () => db.products.find(id), { ttl: 300 })

Handles 4 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: An explicit invalidation rule (delete-on-write or events)

A container runtime and orchestratorOperating Systems

$ docker build -t api . && kubectl apply -f deploy.yaml

Handles 4 things · 5 stay yours · escape hatch: The OS underneath: cgroup events