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Comment by tornikeo

7 hours ago

Good for GitHub. All companies need this. Some use it to improve products, some use it for less commendable goals. I know HN crowd is allergic to telemetry but if you've ever developed a software as a service, telemetry is indispensable.

GitHub CLI is not a SaaS. It's a commandline utility.

  • That doesn't mean it doesn't have usage patterns or other things telemetry would be useful for. And, at the rate these tools are being updated (multiple times a week, multiple times a day in some cases), they practically _are_ SaaS.

Thinking out loud: what are the best practices to vet a tools' telemetry details? The devil is in the details.

A quick summary of my Claude-assisted research at the Gist below. Top of mind is some kind of trusted intermediary service with a vested interest in striking a definable middle ground that is good enough for both sides (users and product-builders)

Gist: WIP 31 minutes in still cookin'

God forbid you talk to your users

  • Talking is a must. But just like quantum particles, users behave and talk very differently. Just look at gamers - most of them say they _hate_ AI in games, yet they are actively behaving differently, buying games made with AI, using AI, etc.