You know that feeling when you spend your day updating documentation, helping teammates get unstuck, or making sure the deployment pipeline actually works? That's glue work. It's the unglamorous stuff that keeps teams running, and chances are you're not getting promoted for it.
Here's the thing though: glue work matters. A lot. But the way most engineers approach it is backwards.
What glue work actually is
Glue work is all the necessary but invisible work that makes teams function. It's updating the README when the setup instructions break. It's noticing that two teams are building duplicate features. It's onboarding the new hire when everyone else is "too busy." It's addressing the technical debt that's slowing everyone down.
This work gravitates toward practical engineers who see what needs doing and just do it. These folks make their teams better, but when promotion time comes around? They get passed over for the engineer who shipped the flashy new feature.
The focus dilemma
Organizations naturally prioritize visible outcomes over maintenance work. This creates a tension: glue work is essential for long-term health, but feature delivery drives immediate business value.
The challenge is finding balance. Your primary responsibility is executing on strategic priorities. It's better to ship consistently at reasonable efficiency than to get caught up optimizing everything while missing deadlines.
Why does this matter? Because trying to fix all the process issues leads to burnout, and teams can become dependent on individuals who volunteer excessive time for maintenance work. Neither approach scales well.
The tactical approach
So should you never do glue work? Not exactly. Focus your glue work energy where it creates the most impact.
When you're accountable for a project's success, invest in whatever glue work helps it succeed. Update the docs if that's what's needed. Fix the broken CI if it's blocking your team. Coordinate with other teams if alignment is missing. You won't get recognized for the glue work specifically, but you will get recognized for shipping successfully.
For other projects, contribute within your defined scope while being mindful of your capacity and other commitments.
How AI changes the game
AI agents are transforming glue work from time-consuming drudgery into strategic advantage. The key insight is that AI excels at automation and routine workflow management, which covers a significant portion of traditional glue work. AI can automatically draft documentation updates, maintain README files, and keep API documentation current without human intervention. It can identify patterns in code reviews, suggest refactoring opportunities, and even implement routine technical debt improvements as part of automated workflows.
Beyond code maintenance, AI proves valuable for routine coordination tasks. It can create personalized onboarding workflows, answer common questions through automated systems, and track cross-team dependencies while flagging potential conflicts before they become blockers. The routine, repetitive aspects of glue work that traditionally consumed hours of human time can now run as automated background processes.
This doesn't eliminate the need for human judgment, but it changes the economics entirely. When AI handles the routine automation and workflow management, you can focus on the high-judgment glue work that actually moves projects forward. The strategic thinking, relationship building, and complex problem-solving still require human insight, but the repetitive maintenance work can run itself.
Making it work in practice
Here's how to think about glue work differently:
For project work: Use AI agents to handle routine glue work so you can focus on shipping. Set up automated documentation updates, use AI for code review assistance, and let agents track cross-team dependencies.
For career growth: Be strategic about which glue work you take on personally. The work that requires human judgment, relationship building, or deep technical insight? That's worth your time. The work that can be automated or delegated? Let AI handle it.
For team efficiency: Accept that teams operate at maybe 70% efficiency most of the time, and that's fine. The goal isn't perfect efficiency. The goal is shipping quality work consistently.
The craft perspective
Think about glue work through the lens of craftsmanship. A master craftsperson knows which tools to use for which jobs. Sometimes that means hand-crafting a solution. Sometimes it means using power tools to handle the routine work so you can focus on the details that matter.
AI agents are power tools for glue work. They don't replace the craftsperson's judgment about what needs doing or why it matters. But they can handle the routine execution, freeing you up to do the kind of strategic thinking and relationship building that actually ships projects.
The bottom line
Glue work matters, but approach it like a craftsperson. Use AI to handle the routine parts. Do the high-judgment parts tactically for projects you lead. And remember that your primary job is shipping quality work, not optimizing the world around you.
The teams that figure this out will have a massive advantage. They'll ship consistently while their competition gets bogged down in either neglecting necessary work or burning out trying to do everything manually.
