About Peter Steinberger
Peter Steinberger is an Austrian developer who built PSPDFKit, the PDF framework used on over a billion devices. After burning out and selling his shares, he disappeared from tech for three years. He returned in 2024, skipped past earlier AI tools entirely, and landed directly on Claude Code—becoming one of the most vocal practitioners of "agentic engineering."
Career Highlights
- Moltbot (2024-present): Creator of the viral personal AI assistant
- PSPDFKit (2011-2021): Founder and CEO, PDF SDK on 1B+ devices
- iOS Development (2009-2011): Early App Store developer, mobile freelancer
Notable Positions
On the "Closing the Loop" Principle
Steinberger's central thesis is that AI coding success depends entirely on feedback loops:
"The good thing about how to be effective with coding agents is always: you have to close the loop. It needs to be able to debug and test itself. That's the big secret."
This explains why AI excels at coding but struggles with creative tasks—code can be compiled, linted, tested, and verified. The agent can learn from its own failures.
On Architecture Over Implementation
Rather than reading generated code line-by-line, Steinberger focuses on system design:
"I very much care about how the product feels, but how the plumbing works underneath—I care structurally, but not to the biggest detail."
He runs 5-10 Codex agents in parallel, designing systems while they implement.
On PRs Becoming "Prompt Requests"
"I read the prompts more than I read the code because this gives me more idea about the output. The work is the thinking about how it should work and what the details are."
Key Quotes
- "It's the same economics as a casino. You press the trigger—it does crap or it blows your mind."
- "Code reviews are dead. PRs should be called prompt requests."
- "I could run a company with 30% of the people. This requires redefining how the company works."
- "I've never worked harder than I do now. Not because I have to, but because it's so addictive."
Moltbot
Moltbot is Steinberger's viral personal assistant project—an AI that runs locally on your computer with full access to email, calendar, WhatsApp, and other systems. It represents his vision of a "hyper-personal agent" that understands context deeply enough to be genuinely helpful.
Key features:
- Multi-platform messaging (WhatsApp, Signal, Discord, Slack, iMessage)
- Local execution with privacy
- Self-updating and self-configuring
- Proactive personality with memory
Related Reading
Video Appearances
Creator of Moltbot/Claudebot
Built by a fellow named Peter who is what I would call a serial vibe coding enthusiast who's made a tremendous number of tools and is just a font of creativity.
at 00:03:30
Moltbot safety and development
Peter Steinberger, who created Moltbot, and the open-source community will figure out ways to make it safer.
at 00:21:45
Agentic engineering at scale
What if you could merge 600 commits on a single day and none of it was slop? This is what today's guest claims he's doing.
at 00:00:00
Closing the loop principle
The good thing about how to be effective with coding agents is always: you have to close the loop. It needs to be able to debug and test itself. That's the big secret.
at 00:24:30
Focus on architecture over implementation
I no longer read most of the code I ship. A lot of code really is just boring plumbing—data comes in one form, packaged into a different form, stored in a database.
at 00:18:00
Prompts over pull requests
I read the prompts more than I read the code. I ask people to please add the prompts. PRs are now prompt requests.
at 00:45:00
AI-driven organizational change
I could easily run a company with 30% of the people. But this requires completely redefining how the company works.
at 00:32:00
OpenClaw viral success and agentic engineering philosophy
I actually think vibe coding is a slur. I always tell people I do agentic engineering and then maybe after 3:00 a.m. I switch to vibe coding.
at 00:00:00