---
title: "Build-Time vs. Run-Time: Why Your Dev Tools Will Fail in Production"
category: "talks"
date: "2026-06-30"
time: "10:45am-11:05am"
track: "Context Engineering"
room: "Track 8"
speakers: ["Averi Kitsch", "Prerna Kakkar"]
sourceLabels: ["Official conference schedule", "Public YouTube metadata"]
scheduleTrack: "Context Engineering"
scheduleRoom: "Track 8"
scheduleLabels: ["Context Engineering", "Track 8", "session", "confirmed"]
---
# Build-Time vs. Run-Time: Why Your Dev Tools Will Fail in Production

## Conference Context
- Date/time: 2026-06-30 · 10:45am-11:05am
- Track/room: Context Engineering · Track 8
- Speaker(s): Averi Kitsch, Prerna Kakkar
- Session type/status: session · confirmed

- Track: Context Engineering
- Room: Track 8
- Session type: session
- Status: confirmed

## Session Description
A dangerous pattern is evolving in the ecosystem: developers are deploying "Build-Time" tools into "Run-Time" environments. In this session, we will introduce a critical distinction for the MCP ecosystem: the difference between Build-Time Agents (Developer Assistants like Gemini Code Assist) and Run-Time Agents (End-user applications like a Customer Support bot). Drawing from our experience building the MCP Toolbox, we will demonstrate why the "Atomic" tools that make Build-Time agents powerful become catastrophic liabilities for Run-Time agents. We will provide a framework for transitioning your architecture across three key axes: Design: Moving from flexible, atomic primitives to "Composite Workflows" that encapsulate business logic. Security: Shifting from "Developer Identity" (trusted) to "Workload Identity" (zero-trust), where the agent is treated as an untrusted user. Reliability: Why production agents need "Agent-Readable" errors (natural language guidance) rather than the stack traces that developers rely on. Attendees will leave with a clear rubric for evaluating whether their tools are truly "Production Ready" or just "Prototype Ready."

## Media Evidence
No related AI Engineer channel video found yet.

## Evidence Graph
This evidence graph is generated from currently linked source material: official schedule text, related video pages, cached transcripts, visible slide text, dense/reconstructed slide pages, and AI slide-classification audits.

### Media Signals
No linked video, transcript, or slide source has been attached yet.

### Agent Reading Notes
Use these signals to refine the synopsis, topic links, people/company context, and method notes. If a source is a related external video rather than an exact official recording, keep it framed as supporting evidence.

## Transcript Status
No official session recording transcript was found by exact title match on the AI Engineer YouTube channel during this run.

## People
- [[averi-kitsch]]
- [[prerna-kakkar]]

## Notes
- Pending transcript synthesis when an official recording or confirmed matching video is available.

## Synthesis
### Synthesized Breakdown
# Build-Time vs. Run-Time: Why Your Dev Tools Will Fail in Production ## Conference Context - Date/time: 2026-06-30 · 10:45am-11:05am - Track/room: Context Engineering · Track 8 - Speaker(s): Averi Kitsch, Prerna Kakkar - Session type/status: session · confirmed - Track: Context Engineering - Room: Track 8 - Session type: session - Status: confirmed ## Session Description A dangerous pattern is evolving in the ecosystem: developers are deploying "Build-Time" tools into "Run-Time" environments. In this session, we will introduce a critical distinction for the MCP ecosystem: the difference between Build-Time Agents (Developer Assistants like Gemini Code Assist) and Run-Time Agents (End-user applications like a Customer Support bot). Drawing from our experience building the MCP Toolbox, we will demonstrate why the "Atomic" tools that make Build-Time agents powerful become catastrophic liabilities for Run-Time agents.

### Speaker And Company Context
- [[averi-kitsch|Averi Kitsch]] — Staff Software Engineer at [[google|Google]].
- [[prerna-kakkar|Prerna Kakkar]] — Senior Software Engineer at [[google|Google]].

### Topics Covered
- [[agent-security]]
- [[coding-agents]]
- [[mcp]]

### Derived Links And Source Material

### Novel Concepts / Clever Methods
- No highlighted novel concept has been detected yet.

### Evidence Boundary
This synthesis is based on the official schedule and linked source pages. It should be revisited when exact session recordings or transcript-backed secondary sources are available.