What we are thinking about

Claris Studio ends March 15, 2027. If your team built on Studio, here's what it means, what a FileMaker-native migration looks like, and how ProofKit can help.

Following the updated naming convention of the newest FileMaker, FMPerception 26 is now available for all users! This update adds two major changes: First, support for FileMaker 2026. Get an overview of all the developer-focused features FileMaker 2026 has to offer using the new Database Design Reports (DDRs). Second, native support for Apple Silicon! Now users with M-series Macs can utilize their processing power for smoother analysis across the board. Users with large multi-file solutions will feel the difference. 

In this episode, Ernest Koe sits down with Ryan McCann, CEO of Claris, for a wide-ranging conversation about leading a software company through an era of rapid AI change. Ryan shares how he thinks about durable product advantage versus commoditized agentic development and why he believes the role of FileMaker is only going to grow. He also opens up on navigating the transition into the CEO seat, managing signal versus noise from the community, and what the FileMaker 2026 release signals about where the platform is headed.

These may seem like just a few new script steps, but they open a whole new world of efficiency in creating PDF files for you to send out to customers.

A few weeks ago, Ryan McCann wrote that Claris is bringing agentic development to FileMaker. Last Thursday, they previewed what some of that looks like. If you haven't watched it, go check it out here. Proof has been actively contributing to Claris's efforts in this initiative. We think it's important that agentic development capabilities are a native (“first-party”) feature of FileMaker. 

In this episode of the Context Podcast, Ernest Koe, Todd Geist, and Eric Luce dive into This Week in AI: FileMaker Edition. They explore Claris’ strategic pivot and the evolving core value proposition of FileMaker within the AI engineering era. The team also introduces ProofKit, our new toolkit for agentic FileMaker development, discussing how we’re sharing it with the world. Tune in to understand why navigating this AI-driven landscape—filled with both immense opportunity and complex security risks—is more critical than ever.

In this episode of the Context Podcast, join Ernest Koe, Todd Geist, and Kyle Duval in another AI conversation. This week, they discuss the “slop cannon”, and all the reasons that SaaS isn’t dead. From more advanced security threats, to the skills needed to manage a complex code base, there’s still plenty of reasons why engineers are needed. 

In this episode of the Context Podcast, join Ernest Koe and Angelo Luchi as they go over Ottomatic Essentials: the hosting service for small teams who want to think big. In this discussion, they discuss the offerings of Essentials and how they benefit users. From the security compliance and ease of Dockerization, to the acceleration benefits of HTTPS Tunneling and Cloudflare, and even the control afforded by the Ottomatic Cloud Console and OttoFMS. This episode will give you a full understanding of how the Essentials levels of our hosting platform aren’t a budget solution— they are a powerful choice that gives you the ability to get up and running quickly.

AI produces outputs that are standard. In other words, they follow well-established and widely used patterns. You can best leverage AI tools by asking yourself which parts of your goal benefit from a well-established approach and which would be better served by something unique.

The Ottomatic Platform adds its 33rd global data center, in Milan, Italy. The site sits in Equinix ML2 with direct access to the Milan Internet Exchange, bringing lower latency, better redundancy and EU data locality to customers across Southern Europe.

Experienced developers may be uniquely susceptible to AI-fueled euphoria — not because they understand AI less, but because they understand software development more. A look at why vibe coding hits differently when you've done it the hard way.

Join Ernest, Brian, and Kyle in this episode of The Context Podcast! This episode is a demo of TopCallStats, our newest tool in the Ottomatic Cloud Console. Upload your data, or pull directly from your Ottomatic server to get a visual graph of your performance data. Instead of parsing through an indecipherable log, you can get a clear understanding of your data and pinpoint issues with ease. In the last half of the conversation, they discuss how they used agentic coding to flesh out the tool quickly.

In this episode of The Context Podcast, join Todd Geist and Ernest Koe as they discuss the whirlwind of activity in the AI space and how that affects FileMaker. They go over the practices and theories behind “vibe coding”, agentic engineering, the different platforms, and more. 

Todd Geist presented Practical AI: Lessons Learned from Building ProofChat last November in Antwerp and the videos are now available.