# Dan Patrascu-Baba

> Co-founder & CTO of Atherio and creator of Cycle-Driven Engineering. Writing on engineering leadership, AI-assisted engineering, software architecture, and building systems that compound.

Dan Patrascu-Baba is the co-founder and CTO of Atherio, a platform that delivers real-time leadership insights, turning leadership guesswork into measurable numbers. Based in Timișoara, Romania, he has 15+ years in software architecture and engineering leadership and has delivered 200+ talks and workshops. He created Cycle-Driven Engineering, an operating model for making AI-assisted engineering compound across an organization. Alongside building Atherio he takes on a deliberately limited amount of advisory and speaking work.

## Articles
- [Cycle-Driven Engineering: Building the Context Layer for AI-Assisted Engineering](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/cycle-driven-engineering-context-layer/): How to build a Context Layer that turns scattered project knowledge into reliable, task-specific context for AI-assisted engineering.
- [Sonnet 5 vs. Opus 4.8: When the Cheaper Model Costs More](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/sonnet-5-vs-opus-4-8-when-the-cheaper-model-costs-more/): Sonnet 5 is cheaper per token than Opus 4.8, yet in a real Claude Code refactor it cost nearly twice as much. Why agent behavior, not price, decides cost.
- [Cycle-Driven Engineering: The Organizational Architecture for AI-Assisted Engineering](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/cycle-driven-engineering-constraint-layer/): The Constraint Layer is the organizational architecture of Cycle-Driven Engineering: decision ownership, boundaries, and reusable assets for AI-assisted delivery.
- [Why Most Code Reviews Should Never Happen](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/why-most-code-reviews-should-never-happen/): In the AI-assisted engineering era, reviewing code often costs more than writing it. How Cycle-Driven Engineering makes most code reviews unnecessary.
- [Fable 5 vs. Opus 4.8 – No Hype, Just Facts](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/fable-5-vs-opus-4-8-no-hype-just-facts/): Anthropic's Fable 5 costs double Opus 4.8 and arrives wrapped in hype. I put both to work head-to-head on the same workflow to see if the price is justified.
- [Why AI-Assisted Engineering Fails: The Vibe-Coder's Mindset](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/ai-assisted-engineering/): AI-assisted engineering fails when capable teams bring a vibe-coder's mindset to it. The difference is ownership, scaled from the engineer to the whole organisation.
- [How I Know My System Is Healthy, And What It Costs To Keep It That Way](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/how-i-know-my-system-is-healthy/): Cost-to-serve, scaling, reliability, throughput. A CTO's measurement framework for any software product, with six months of real production data.
- [Claude Code Skills vs Sub-Agents (and Rules): How My Agent Learned My Business](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/my-coding-agent-understands-my-business/): How I use Claude Code skills, sub-agents, and rules, and when to choose each, so my AI coding agent understands my business concepts.
- [Cycle-Driven Engineering](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/cycle-driven-engineering/): Accelerating execution inside systems built for slow feedback does not work. It amplifies inconsistencies. Cycle-Driven Engineering is the answer.

## Pages
- [Home / About](https://danpatrascu.com/)
- [Blog](https://danpatrascu.com/blog/)
- [Topics](https://danpatrascu.com/tags/)

## Services
- [Services overview](https://danpatrascu.com/services/): How Dan helps organizations design reliable engineering systems: engineering leadership, AI-assisted software delivery, agentic automation, and workshops.
- [Engineering Leadership](https://danpatrascu.com/services/engineering-leadership/): Experienced, CTO-level guidance for critical technology decisions. Engagements: Fractional CTO, Technology Strategy, Architecture Reviews, and Technical Due Diligence.
- [AI-Assisted Engineering](https://danpatrascu.com/services/ai-assisted-engineering/): Redesign software delivery for the age of AI. Engagements: an AI-Assisted Engineering Diagnosis, Transformation, Coaching, and Advisory.
- [Agentic Automation](https://danpatrascu.com/services/agentic-automation/): Identify which business workflows are worth automating with AI agents, then architect and build them to enterprise standards: orchestration, evaluations, governance, and EU AI Act compliance.
- [Workshops & Speaking](https://danpatrascu.com/services/workshops-speaking/): Keynotes, executive briefings and hands-on workshops on AI-assisted engineering, software architecture and engineering leadership. Formats: Executive Briefings, Engineering Leadership Workshops, AI-Assisted Engineering Workshops, AI Agent Engineering Workshops, and Conference Keynotes.

## Profiles
- [Atherio](https://getatherio.com): the company Dan is building
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-patrascu-baba-08b78523/)
- [X](https://x.com/danpdc)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/atherio-danp)
- [Architect To CTO newsletter](https://architecttocto.substack.com)
- [Book a call](https://www.cal.eu/dan-patrascu-ylohiw)