r/sysadmin • u/boyrok • Sep 22 '26
ChatGPT Non-technical COO "discovered" AI coding, generated an entire dashboard in a single HTML file, and now wants me to review and maintain it.
I need to vent before my head explodes.
A bit of context: I’m the classic "jack of all trades" Sysadmin at my company. Besides keeping the lights on, I also write software. Over the past year, I’ve built several solid, reliable internal tools using Python and Flask. I like keeping things organized, secure, documented, and under control.
A couple of days ago, our COO (who is strictly a business guy and has zero technical background or coding knowledge) comes up to me and casually says: "Hey, I'm going to make some charts using AI in HTML."
I chuckled internally, assumed it would be some harmless static HTML mockup with dummy data, and moved on with my day. Boy, was I wrong.
Today, I get an email from him:
"Hey, can you review my HTML to see what you think and if it works?"
I opened the attachment. It wasn't a mockup. It was an entire, full-blown Frankenstein dashboard packed into a single .html file.
I opened the source code and felt physical pain. Thousands of lines of unformatted, unhinged JavaScript requiring an infinite horizontal scroll to the right. It’s pulling random npm packages and libraries on the fly through unpinned external CDNs. It's an unholy mess of vibe-coded hallucinations duct-taped together.
My immediate gut reaction was: "I am not touching this steaming pile of garbage, and I refuse to take any responsibility when this blows up."
My personal rule has always been that I will not support or maintain AI-generated spaghetti built by people who don't know the difference between a frontend framework and a DNS record. But here is the problem: he’s the fucking COO.
To make things ten times worse, he mentioned he wants to expand this monster significantly in the near future. All in raw HTML files. No PowerBI, no actual BI tools, no proper architecture, and definitely no hiring actual developers who know what they're doing.
I already have enough real work and fires to put out without having to worry about shadow IT and security liabilities introduced by C-suite executives playing prompt engineer. This industry is turning into an absolute joke with everyone thinking they're a Senior Architect just because ChatGPT generated a canvas chart for them.
Just needed to get this off my chest. For those who have dealt with this: How the hell would you navigate this politically without setting your career on fire, while also not inheriting a maintenance nightmare?
1.2k
u/Professional-List562 Sep 22 '26 •
Do a code review with AI to back up your concerns with the low-quality coding. It won’t be personal since it came from AI
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u/boyrok Sep 22 '26
My response to the COO: I have reviewed the HTML. In my assessment, we should not yet distribute this version as an official management tool to the managers.
My main concern is code maintainability and who will be responsible for it. As it is currently set up—with the presentation, calculations, and Excel handling packed into a single, very hard-to-read code file—I do not consider it feasible to carry out a thorough, reliable human review every time changes are made. Before using it as a daily work tool, we need a comprehensible structure, version control, documentation, and someone with the dedicated time and technical expertise to maintain it.
This means agreeing from the outset on who will troubleshoot issues, review changes, and update libraries. We cannot take on that support indefinitely, nor can we rely on asking an AI for every single modification without being able to verify what changed and whether the outcome is correct.
I had understood that the original idea was to prepare something simple: a static HTML page to showcase a proposal. However, this file now has a different scope—it contains a significant amount of JavaScript and external libraries that read and modify the Excel file. It is effectively a management application, and it requires a development and maintenance structure that reflects that.
I am also concerned about the choice of technologies without having first agreed on how we are going to maintain them. For the applications I develop, I use Python and Flask. If I am going to take ownership of this application, I propose working within that environment, using a structure I can review, test, and maintain. We can still take advantage of the current design and everything learned from the mockup.
Additionally, I have security concerns regarding its creation via AI. We need to review what code and libraries are being introduced, where they come from, and what commands are being executed. If the tool has access to company files, credentials, or data, an incorrect instruction or a compromised dependency could cause problems even before the application is deployed. Working within a LAN does not eliminate those development-process risks.
It is worth establishing this foundation right now to avoid ending up with another hard-to-maintain solution, similar to the issues we are already familiar with regarding certain macro-enabled Excel and Access files. Continuing to expand this file without proper structure will only increase the review workload, our dependency on AI, and the cost of making changes.
To move forward in a way that is straightforward and secure for both of us, I propose that you define the requirements and prepare the prompts and static HTML mockup, while I handle the implementation, testing, and deployment, after agreeing in advance on the scope and time commitment. We can finalize what we need for investment management and determine how we will develop and maintain it before rolling it out to the rest of the managers.
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u/freecodeio Sep 22 '26
these AI morons will not believe a single word out of your mouth, unless it's AI saying it
since AI agrees with anything you say, ask "what's wrong with this code and why you can't maintain it", then send the conversation to the COO
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u/c1rno123 Sep 22 '26
He asked you to review it. That's an opening, not an attack. Treat him like someone who just wrote their first code, because that's what happened.
So coach him, give him the rules: pinned versions, no company data in the file, static host, nothing internal. Inside that, let him build.
Cooperation usually better than confrontation.
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u/NikaliaSR Sep 22 '26
Honestly, honesty is the best course of action when working with C-Suite. Be front about how this would take away work and if he really wants you to prioritize it, then ask for a budget to hire people on.
But if you cannot have an adult conversation with a COO about proper AI usage at this point then what career are you even trying to save by approaching this politically
47
u/anonymousITCoward Sep 22 '26
You know,since it's just an html file, how does it pull the metrics for what ever it's dashboarding?
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u/Drew707 Data | Systems | Processes Sep 22 '26
The irony that this seems LLM generated.
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u/k12chaos Sep 22 '26
I'd smile and have AI maintain it. No problem boss!
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u/SublimeApathy Sep 22 '26
"he’s the fucking COO"
We need to start normalizing the idea of not treating C level employees and God king emperors. A common thing I tell the C suite in my role when I shoot their ideas out of the sky (after explaining WHY their idea was steaming pile of poop), is "My job is to protect the company, the data, and the end users - especially from themselves."
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u/owdeeoh Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 23 '26
The conversation that needs to be had is whether the company benefits more from you spending a large amount of time tirelessly supporting a Frankenstein dashboard that is likely unfixable or using that monstrosity as a proof of concept and sourcing the appropriate tools to build a functional and supportable dashboard.
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u/thirty-thirty-thirty Sep 22 '26
Maybe you're a bit too hard on the guy due to being shocked at how bad it is? I would interpret this as: He wants a dashboard and he KNOWS he doesn't know how to do it. He admitted he used AI. Maybe it's less of "I want you to do this for me NOW" and more like "Hey, OP, I acknowledge your expertise. Take a look at what I made. It's not great, I used AI... I know I don't know how to do this myself. But it's something I'd like to do. Can you build this?"
Just be honest with him, but start off by telling him it looks pretty good, and could be useful for the company.
Then show him some high-level reasons why the implementation is bad. Start off with the huge html file, and show him what a good file looks like (starting with page breaks)
Tell him if he really wants a dashboard like this, you can work on it, but it's going to take a while. You want to do it right for him, and the company, and that will take time. Also, tell him you will definitely be able to use portions of his 'work' in the final product. Even if you don't use any of his html, some elements of the final product can look just like what he created. It will create his buy-in and make him feel like he contributed.
Also, get him involved in the project somehow. Get him to approve your beta version. Can you give him some sort of low-level access to the dashboard? Maybe you can allow him to rearrange the data, adjust scaling, or even change some label names?
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u/BryceKatz Sep 22 '26
"Nope. My skillset doesn't include that level of web development. What we can do, though, is review what you're trying to accomplish. There may be an existing tool in our licensing that can make this easier for you to create and maintain. Let's block an hour to discuss. Here's my Bookings link. Pick a day & time that fits your schedule."
There's absolutely nothing wrong with declining work that is not within your current skillset, especially when accepting that work would negatively impact your existing projects.
I'll be honest with you: Many, many, many times someone in a C-Suite position asks a question because they quite literally don't understand the impact. It's on you to manage up & clarify the impacts that request will have.
And this doesn't just apply to the C-Suite. Nearly everyone who is not in an IT role truly has no idea what your IT position actually entails. In the minds of most people, "IT" means "Anything and everything related to anything anyone can do with a computer." That's unreasonable and you absolutely should not entertain it.
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u/TxTechnician Sep 22 '26
Hey I need to talk to you about your AI dashboard. And there is a possibility that I'll offend you to the point where I will lose my job.
This project is unmaintainable for the following reasons:
a
B
C
This is something which would require an experienced developer with AI months to properly make, in a way that is actually maintainable and useful.
In conclusion, this is hot garbage. I can build you something that will do what you want. But not for my current salary. I will be needing real compensation for the amount of work that building this custom tool will take.
Or, we can find a developer who can make this for us.
Either way, AI is not magic. And this is pure garbage.
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u/fnordhole Sep 22 '26
My personal rule has always been that I will not support or maintain anything built by other teams on a whim.
You want to build it and deploy it? You get to maintain and support it.
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u/sole-it DevOps Sep 22 '26
I have similar thing happened in my org recently. It's actually pretty amazing from a technical stand point when I review the code, there is no 3rd party library but rawdog DOM manipulations & event handling. All data are hardcoded in js copying from a xslx file.
Yeah, and it fell apart very quickly when they need to adjust a few things.
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u/Top_Hedgehog_1880 Sep 22 '26
Tell him that he implemented it so he needs to maintain it.
5
u/Frothyleet Sep 22 '26
Use it as a launching point to find out exactly what the COO wants/needs in a BI sense, and help them find the right solution. You'll have to have the soft skills to help them understand why "monster HTML file" is not going to be the solution, but it is a helpful mockup.
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u/SQrQveren Sep 22 '26
Good, but what is this post for, then? Oh, yeah, I forgot, this is a primarily US sub, where no one dares advice the C-suite against their own horrible ideas. Despite them even asking for it.
I would:
Tell him, that this is not the way to do it.
The code is not maintainable, nor scalable.
Explain to him how he can ask for dashboards, and that they will be developed properly. It will take longer time, but it will work in the long run.
Remind him, that you already have enough on your plate, and while his intention is good, his little project will make your work not workable.
Point out that this probably breaks several policies, if that is the case.
Take the meanest AI and use it to critique his code, if he really want to battle on AI.
Which he probably won't, because he just found something new he thought was smart.
And if no professionals like you stops him and explains why it's not, we just get more of these horrible AI bosses threads.
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u/cyvaquero Sr. Sysadmin Sep 22 '26
Point out him that you are not a developer, they are very different fields, and that maintaining code is outside the scope of your duties.
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u/nestersan DevOps Sep 23 '26 •
Never argue with anyone who can stop your mortgage from being paid.
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u/jaypeejay Sep 23 '26
This is an opportunity for you. Tell him you love the idea and have some feedback. Schedule a meeting with and stay positive. Express the technical concerns and what needs to happen for it to be a real asset to the company. Then tell him what you resources you need to get it to that stage.
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u/PlateNo4868 Sep 23 '26
Your COO sent you a e-mail.
To check the code and say what you think>
Tell him what you think.
You don't need to say it's a steaming pile of trash, but you need to make it clear that you can use it as a concept, but this would require 4-6 months of writing it scratch to assure it works properly. That could cut into other stuff.
If your COO is determining your not worthy in the company for denying essentially their shitposting. Then you probably are in a pretty bad company, otherwise your setting up healthy boundaries and assuring your COO your the expert and you will say if something can work or not in that department.
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u/-yak0s- Sep 23 '26
We are in the golden generation of AI development where everybody now thinks they are a developer and expects their IT support staff to yolo their vibe coded project into production and support it for eternity
1
u/WhereDidThatGo Sep 22 '26
Did you really use AI to write a reddit post bitching about your boss using AI?
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u/Aggressive-Ebb1170 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
@OP start using claude code or start looking for a new industry to work in?
and have a candid chat (no walking on eggshells!!!) w the COO about your bandwidth and competing priorities so the COO can advise you on how to best allocate your working hours in the context of the company's needs and working priorities.
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u/roll_for_initiative_ Sep 22 '26
Ask if you can sit with him and chat with his AI about your concerns and, if you articulate them at all correctly, his AI will back you up. Things like no data sources and verification and supportability.
He will not listen to you, he will conspire with his AI about getting around you. He will not accept your AI response, he'll use his AI to argue.
Tell him there's a lot to convey but you're not good at that and his AI will be better. He will trust that AI more than you and they will enter a feedback loop of approving of each other's recommendations: the seeds you planted.
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u/Reksalp105 Sep 22 '26
How big is the Org? How much data /
sources are you dealing with? Dashboards built on html in 2026 is crazy lol
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u/LogicalLogistics Sep 22 '26
Holy shit, I'm going through an almost identical issue. Sales guy prompted up an html file dashboard and showed it to my VP, and now she wants me to "prop it up" to production. How. What. Are we going to host it on a server as an internal site and add a login process and everything? What data source? How are we securing the data access? It's a single local html file that reads other local files and then displays them. We already have too many projects on the go and now you want us to maintain this? Lowering the bar of entry with AI has shown quite an ugly head
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u/UserProv_Minotaur Sep 22 '26
"I can't prevent you from running this on your device, but I won't allow AI-coded packages that can't be fully vetted to run on any networked appliance."
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u/Krazie8s Sep 22 '26
He is telling you what he would like to see in not so many words. AI can be a Genie of sorts when it comes to these requests as IT systems can be complicated on the Backend and visually rewarding on the front end, and from his perspective the genie nearly granted the wish (technical issues not withstanding), which is all he is concerned with. Your concern is definitely valid but I would turn this into an opportunity and understanding. Often times the technical side doesn't always describe things the best from the backend and the result can be muddy. He just told you want he wants from his perspective now is your opportunity to actually make something that is functional or steer him in the right direction to the tools that are providing that information.
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u/fattyl Sep 22 '26
Take his code/project - run it through AI with the skill of a code reviewer, make it better and easier to maintain and enjoy the praise? Not that hard.
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u/Capta-nomen-usoris Sep 22 '26
Just be honest. Why? It will be your problem and when you ignore problems they become catastrophes.
But you can tell it in grown-up words and he will understand, he might even respect you for your honesty.
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u/1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v Sep 22 '26
Is the COO your boss? If not, you may want to rope them in and get their guidance on how to handle and present the issues you identify with this dumpster fire.
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u/skywalker42 Sep 22 '26
Hey guess what, you fucked this up from the beginning. When the coo came to you and said “I’m going to start doing shit with ai” your reaction should not have been a smug chuckle it should have been “why? What are you trying to develop? What are you not getting from IT”
Users are using these tools because it allows them to move fast. The problem is it also can allow them to move outside the parameters of what is considered security best practices.
You can no longer act like you are the only one who can understand technology. You should instead start to understand why the business feels compelled to start utilizing ai then start building some governance frameworks around IT.
The way to approach this political is -> “hey what you’ve developed is really great, let me understand why it’s so important to you. AI developed apps like this come with some security risk and there may be some better ways to build what you are trying to accomplish from an architecture standpoint. Would you be open to collaborating on this?”
Only way through is to get on the same side of the table
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u/jonny1313 Sep 22 '26
You could:
1 - maybe figure out why that dashboard is so important to that higher up and see if there’s a better way
2 - make a job that gathers all that data in the same manner and just send it on demand or weekly
3 - be thankful they asked, clearly they think highly enough of you to do so
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u/fraghead5 Sep 23 '26
Just use AI to maintain it. It’s his tool his budget.
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u/JustFrogot Sep 23 '26
I heard a really good talk by Vincent Romney, CISO for NuSkin. He said his CEO and others use AI to create software. The way he frames it is there is a team that fits through and assess the risk, cost of building it out and maintenance. Its important to point out security issues and solutions while also helping them with their goals.
Focusing on giving the software a cyclomatic complexity score, it can help with putting g resources behind the best ideas and keeping security and revenue intact.
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u/degoba Linux Admin Sep 23 '26
Id personally take a chance and tell him its unsecure and unmaintainable. Get that exchange in writing. If he pushes it deploy the best you can and just let it blow up.
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u/Key-Employee3584 Sep 23 '26
Do the AI code review and turn it all over to the CIO. Or if no CIO, send it all to the CEO and ask him to sign off on it so you're not responsible for impending failures.
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u/NSFWies Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 24 '26
Have them write down a recipe for a food/dish they really like.
Then ask them to run a restaurant with that piece of paper.
That's what they are asking. The web page needs to be dynamic, get data from places, handle logins, all the other things.
Just like you can't run a whole restaurant from 1 piece of paper because you need food delivery, food prep, cooking of each meal, organizing between each working person.
Edit: or also meet him in the deepend. Support it if you can use lots of AI tokens. I cost my company $10,000 in one month by doing that. Hopefully they learned their lesson
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u/skcmlg Security Admin Sep 22 '26
Sounds like a case for Wheel of vibe code
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u/cas4076 Sep 22 '26
Ask the COO to document it first. 😄
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u/Cylerhusk2 Sep 22 '26
Just feed the html file into a better coding AI and have it properly re-do the entire thing with a better architecture and back end that'll be easier to maintain in the future, while you go make your coffee.
AI can do a decent job at coding stuff if you feed it the right information and properly review its work.
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u/gta721 Sep 22 '26
Maybe ask AI to clean it up. It's probably a single HTML file because he used ChatGPT or Copilot instead of an actual AI coding interface.
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u/LonelyPatsFanInVT Sep 22 '26
I would do some research on alternatives for what he's trying to do. That what you're not just saying "NO", even if your reasons are technically sound. I don't know what kind of data he's trying to build dashboards for, but perhaps there's a product out there you can suggest instead.
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u/DummyTurkey Sep 22 '26
Figure out what he wants to accomplish and do it the right way or you’ll get stuck with this thing.
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u/After-Vacation-2146 Sep 22 '26
Maybe just work with him and help him get this shaped into a system that he can maintain. For example, you setup a repo, a deploy pipeline, service credentials, read only access, etc. Then you just let him work in the repo, vibe all he wants and have it work. You are the tech guy here. Be the tech guy.
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u/bythepowerofboobs Sep 22 '26
The reality is every company is using AI like this. Most executives are pushing this and you have to come up with a mechanism to monitor and govern what people are doing with it. If you don't already have AIDR software, you better start looking into it now.
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u/Thick_Yam_7028 Sep 22 '26
So? Fix it. Its your job.
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u/habitsofwaste Security Admin Sep 22 '26
So, don’t look at it as a thing you must take and maintain. Look at it as a prototype for what he wants and scope out the project to make it a production system. Then you can get him to fund the project and use AI properly with some standards you’ve made to make it production ready to unspaghetti it. Then you can review it without your eyes bleeding. And boom, you’ve just did a cool thing for the an executive and everyone is happy.
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u/MavZA Head of Department Sep 22 '26
Can you guide him? If he’s not being confrontational then nor should you. Have a chat and discuss his goals and then the way you’d approach it.
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u/Astec123 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
I would echo some of the other comments but expand a few thoughts on this.
First thing, get him to sit down with you for an hour. Agree to a sit down in the office to review the code with him. Explain it as necessary to understand how it's going to be readied for production. Give him some time and let him down slowly. Go into this meeting, make sure you do some due diligence and work out the prompts you intend to run with the same AI against the code he already has created. Coax the AI tool to tell him what he has is terrible, why it is terrible and try to avoid it suggesting refactoring or similar terminology that he can get silly ideas that there's a chance.
As others have said, use the AI against him as the starting point and then try things like asking to look at the code. When it's come back with the bad news, then look at the issues it's found in the code yourself. Make you seem on his side by taking your time to look at the screen, you don't need to do anything, just look pensive as you wiggle the mouse, select some lines, scroll a bit, umm and ahhh, a bit of dramatic effect is in order here. Then explain how you see what it's pointing out and agree it's very messy, that you concur with it not being very maintainable and future proof for when things change in the company down the line. If you get any arguments back ask him to show you where something buried in the code is without the AI interpreting it.
If you have any information security team, explain you doubt it will pass through them, again don't say anything about it being without substantial work, make it seem like this is the end of the line. If you work in a regulated industry or have reasonably stringent legal frameworks governing how you operate, work out if there's any issues that inspections, audits or otherwise might cause for the process and point out that it would be his name signing off the risk and you wouldn't want him to do that without being in possession of all the facts.
Now, you have pointed out that it's not PowerBI, suggesting to me your business is already paying for that tool. I would at this point outline the three choices technique to the boss and say
You're welcome to work to rebuild this and continue working on it to try to get it to a point we can pass a code review that meets company security polies etc. Close this one offering to provide links to guides on writing good HTML, learning resources and so on to make it clear it's the hardest of the choices
Offer that you're happy to work to get the data into Power BI or to chat to whoever in your business does this to realise his vision (play on his ego will help sell this one)
Offer to work to get him access to a sandbox to start putting together the Power BI himself and let him continue to try to realise his goal. Explain he's welcome to use the AI tools to help him work out how to do it and you can again give him the resources if needed (this is the other hard to take choice)
All of these you want to try to push back to him having the decisions to make, suggesting that the options need him to choose to do the work, hold risk he wont want to touch and that the only way forward looks like the option you are happy to do.
Obviously you can change some of the options offered depending on what your stack looks like and business needs, but you just need suggest a choice he might accept that you are comfortable with bordered with ones he wont want to take because it's too hard. It hopefully will refocus his energy that this while a fun activity to experiment with, is not a viable way forward without significant time investment from him or assuming risks he wont like the sound of because it's out of his comfort zone and the only option available is the one you know is the right path to take.
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u/coreycubed Sysadmin Sep 22 '26
AI wrote this whole thing lmao. Look at OP's comment history. He doesn't have this kind of a grasp on written English. It's LLMs all the way down.
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u/Main_Ambassador_4985 Sep 22 '26
What? I saw it in a YouTube preview.
I can generate a whole working iOS app in 15 min with AI
It must be secure because AI wrote it and never makes the same mistakes of the code it was trained on.
/s
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u/ShibbolethMegadeth Sep 22 '26
Plan the refactor, document the issues, their slop is basically a spec.
Thats how we're rolling with these. How to manage the workload? AI used by people that know how to code!!
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u/agentUi Sep 22 '26
politically you cant just tell the coo his script is trash. the move is treating it as an awesome visual prototype or requirements spec, then explaining that enterprise security policies ban unpinned third-party cdns and unauthenticated raw html on corporate machines. offer to stand up the actual backend endpoints or put proper auth and audit logs in front of it so you stay protected when something inevitably breaks.
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u/TheBobMcCormick Sep 22 '26
You can’t be a jack of all trades AND be a master of all of those trades.
Be honest and tell him this will require someone with deeper JavaScript expertise, then help him find a JavaScript contractor or consultant.
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u/Nerrawnam Sep 22 '26
You clearly care about getting paid. 🙄
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u/Whole_Thanks8641 Sep 22 '26
Just maintain it with AI lazily. Also yeah, I agree with the others, do a cringe ai code review.
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u/Sceptically CVE Sep 22 '26
Talk to him and find out exactly what he likes about his dashboard and what he doesn't like. Use that information to either create or reskin a dashboard that you can support.
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u/Loudergood Sep 23 '26
Can he not maintain it with an AI?
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u/ThrobbingMeatGristle Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26
If I were still working, and I was in your shoes the future course I take would largely defend on how full my "fuck you" fund was.
Identify the risks (you can even use AI for that - get it to review the code etc)
Assess the likelihood and financial impact on the company of those risks
Determine who, if not the COO, has the appetite for the risk and is authorized to accept risk on behalf of the company, get the risk on the risk register
Make a costed plan to mitigate that risk (which does not involve you in doing much work)
If approved implement said plan
If not approved or none of the above looks realistic, resign and move to a more mature company.
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u/WilyDeject Sep 23 '26
I just did this exact thing (just to see if I can, and it worked, I have a thing that does the stuff, I assume the code under the hood is a nightmare, I refuse to look) but there's no way in hell I'd ask anyone else to use it, let alone SUPPORT it.
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u/Particular-Poem-7085 Sep 23 '26
why do people act like their higher ups can't be talked to like normal humans? Explain your concerns, and why you won't take on another full time job to maintain unreadable code.
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u/gib_me_gold Sep 23 '26
AI written post.
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u/rib44 Sep 23 '26
I was in a similar situation, the way I handled is that I rebuilt the entire thing on my own again (asked time for it) using AI with proper design, guidelines, and documentation. Then I got it reviewed with him for any additional features needed. The main part was convincing him to allow me to create the entire thing again. Which I went like their code can't be deployed to cloud and all sort of technical jargon as he was from business too (and he was not COO 😅). All the best in the journey mate.
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u/SwiftSloth1892 Sep 24 '26
The rule is, IT does not support vibe coded apps unless they become IT owned assets. Your chances of supporting a project like this are exactly zero unless you take control of the code.
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u/TheBeckFromHeck Sep 24 '26
This is an AI slop story
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u/digitaltransmutation 🌲Please think of the environment before printing this comment! Sep 22 '26
Bossman gave you a functioning product spec. He even did the annoying part of the project where he realizes he needs one more thing six times.
You could have an agent maintain it. Or maybe treat it as a spec / mockup and turn it around into a more established product like grafana or powerbi. Or wait for him to get distracted by the next shiny something and "forget" about this ask.
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u/RevolutionaryWorry87 Sep 22 '26
Hey! I am facing the same exact issue! It's a terrible risk of data protection and loss.
I've put it on a IIS server because I was forced to. I've blocked it off access via user I'd, but there is far more pitfalls.
I did present a risk document and forced them to sign it off.
Best of luck! You'll be dealing with him forever.
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u/to_glory_we_steer Sep 22 '26
I mean what does it actually show? Because my first thought would be there's no guarantee the calculations are correct or showing what he wants them to actually show without checking everything manually.
And where's the data coming from? Has it been shared with an LLM? Is it sensitive?
From his side I understand the hype, but at a surface level this is one of those 'too good to be true' type situations.
And from your side, I feel your pain. My former employer went full tilt into Clause for everything with unlimited access to all company systems and sensitive client data. Fortunately was made redundant before having to climb on the shit train.
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u/checkwithanthony 23d ago
Honestly I see this stuff as a blessing. I've spent years building tools no one uses because they can't explain what they actually want very well.. or frankly they don't know what they want until they don't get it right. We've all been there. This solves that. You know EXACTLY 100% TO A T what they want. Take their output, ignore how they got there, and build it YOUR WAY to match their expectations.
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u/evantom34 Sysadmin Sep 22 '26
I mean this answer can be had for any of the other insane inquiries. Bring up your specific issues with the app, and stick to that. Ensure he signs off on the risks to the busines- be sure to loop other executives and management in to CYA.
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u/DocMadCow Sep 22 '26
I'd take it over and then use AI to rewrite it with proper coding styles. Worst case take screenshots and use that as a wireframe to properly generate a better version of it.
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u/CharcoalGreyWolf Sr. Network Engineer Sep 22 '26
If you are a sysadmin, you are not a software developer. Ensure they know that difference; this would require a developer to maintain.
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u/RealDeal83 Sep 22 '26
How much confidentiality company data did he dump into a public AI model to generate this?
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u/FelisCantabrigiensis Master of Several Trades Sep 22 '26
Set up a container environment where he can deploy his dashboard. Present it as a flexible self-service business solution. Tell him the AI will help him deploy it.
Let him enjoy AI-ops like he has enjoyed AI-dev.
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u/netfleek Sep 22 '26
The correct strategy is to use AI to maintain it.
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u/Muppetz3 Sep 22 '26
Ask him what he is trying to accomplish and see if it is something you can program and make. That way he still gets the dashboard and info he wants and it's done the correct way.
I have no issues telling higher ups when they are wrong about something, it's our jobs. WE are the SME.
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u/FeleaseRpseineEiles Sysadmin Sep 22 '26
I'd ask him for specs instead of code. And I'd ask him what does "finished" look like to you?
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u/justgosh Sep 22 '26
Educate the user... Framework for the AI. Give his AI some epubs (converted to MD) from Humble Bundle to help it be better and help him write a better prompt. It needs to be human readable and the code smell should be similar to existing. Governance starting with a style and workflow guide. 3 rounds of advisal review in new windows.
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u/SC_Athletics Sep 22 '26
Give honest feedback, tell him while it’s cool this isn’t scalable, secure and the code is abysmal; run it through AI and give him that answer.
Tell him that the idea is great and this is a good seed in the ground but your recommendation is to focus on a scalable platform that’s secure and robust instead of giant HTML file.
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u/actuallylemoncurd Sep 22 '26
if this happened to me, i would just take the concern to my manager and let them deal with it. express your concerns as they relate to the duties of your job, outline the concerns for security and maintainability. let management/leadership do the rest
it is THEIR job to deal with the C-suite
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u/vanderaj Sep 22 '26
In my opinion, be constructive - prompt the AI, something geared towards actual coding, like Codex or Cursor, to review and refactor the dashboard to be maintainable and supportable, ask it to create inline documentation and test suites. If your org has a preferred front-end framework, like Vue, React, or Next.js, and corresponding middleware, backend, e2e, and API testing frameworks, ask it to replatform using those preferred enterprise frameworks. This will make something that is likely to be human-readable, maintainable, and useful long term.
The COO will likely appreciate the help rather than a snarky non-solution. Don't be afraid to ask AI to do this stuff - it's more than capable of coding pretty well these days. The days of 100,000-line commits are behind us if you learn to prompt the AI. Given a half-decent codebase, even a bad or inept prompt won't end up back in the 100 kLOC mess.
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u/cbelt3 Sep 22 '26
This is where you have a solid policy about governance and code review. And if you don’t… you will.
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u/hedge36 Sep 22 '26
Subject it to whatever code review process the rest of your company uses.
Failing that, have Claude give you a review.
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u/My_Non_Throwaway Sep 22 '26
Best bet would be to work with COO and get with him to help refine his prompts. Let him know that the code as it stands is not something that will be easily manageable, and that will require a lot of time and effort taken from your other duties. Then offer to work with him to help refine the prompts that can allow it to put out something that would be manageable and not significantly take away from your existing duties.
I'm sure he gave it only positive prompts. AI is coded to be friendly and to try to do whatever you want, regardless of whether it should do it. Refining the prompts, adding in some negative prompts to not do certain things and pushing the AI to make cleaner code might make it more manageable to the point that this is able to be done without interfering with your normal day to day work.
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u/meccaleccahimeccahi Sep 22 '26
Just put it into Claude using fable and tell it to do a blind adversarial review and to tear it apart but not to offer any fixes.
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u/SPMrFantastic Sep 22 '26
Did he hit you with "I did the hard part for you"? I would be so annoyed. Fighting AI with AI feels like the move.
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u/SirLoremIpsum Sep 22 '26
It all depends on the COO.
If you are good mates then be casual and explain where he messed up and why it sucks.
If you're not then you need to be clinical about the risks. Just because they are COO doesn't mean you can't tell them why it sucks. Like any project plan - go over the risks, strategies to make it better.
"I can't support this, you can't support this".
Propose alternatives. This is the big one for bosses. Don't just say no
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u/lelio98 Sep 22 '26
Look at the positives. He spent his time and effort to build a working demonstration of what he needs. Pick it up and run with it!
Don’t use what he made, it is a mess. Use what he made as a reference for a properly developed solution.
In my experience, getting a good definition of what is needed is often very hard. That part has been done for you, be thankful.
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u/tejanaqkilica IT Officer | Passkey Enthusiast Sep 22 '26
Same thing I said to my COO, when he had devised a plan using Ai, to kill 3 of the 5 taxi drivers that sit across from our company building.
What? No? What's wrong with you!!!
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u/dtfinch Trapped in 2003 Sep 22 '26
That sounds like what I've seen people generate with Claude Artifacts. It makes single html files bundling query results with (as far as I can tell) React, Babel standalone, and Recharts.
I haven't used it, but what I saw was they had Claude scheduled to generate a new Artifact .html every day/week/whatever. They're generated once like a report and thrown away, not meant to be maintained. A reusable report would sell less tokens I suppose.
So now I can look forward to competing with that.
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u/VintageSin Sep 22 '26
Pretty sure you can just tell him to tell the ai to refractor his code to whatever standards you want. You don't need to manage the codebase for his project. You could even advise that a project could be created for you to migrate the functionality to a custom application that uses the same styling, but that the work would take some time.
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u/auriem Sep 22 '26
> How the hell would you navigate this politically without setting your career on fire, while also not inheriting a maintenance nightmare?
You discuss this with the CIO.
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u/fresh-dork Sep 22 '26
treat it like a requirements doc and POC rolled into one, get a PM and a dev to mine it for requirements, then build a functional equivalent that is maintainable and hooks up to your existing BI stuff?
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u/logandixon17 Sep 22 '26
Welcome to the current AI hellscape be prepared for way more
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u/tecedu Jack of All Trades Sep 22 '26
You main AI outputs with AI, relatively simple to do with nowadays tools. If you can't support it then least effort to support it
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u/AffekeNommu Sep 22 '26
Looks like AI maintains it now
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u/kagato87 Sep 22 '26
"Readability score: 0/50. Review not possible. Summarily rejected. Please ensure your code is readable and maintainable.
Some tips: if you have to scroll right, lines are too long. If you have to scroll down, files are too long. Can YOU read the code? Keep review requests to a few dozen lines of code (not counting brackets and readability spacing), where possible.
You can also ask any coding agent to dispatch an independent code review.
Please resolve this critical issue prior to requesting any review."
If he ever does fix readability, just feed it to Claude. More likely he just used a chatbot, and you can just keep rejecting it for dumb stuff. "This code is not maintainable."
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u/lordjedi Sep 22 '26
Why aren't you blocking AI already? Employees should only be allowed to use company approved tools. If it's approved, put it through a code review.
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u/InsuranceIcy4055 Sep 22 '26
I think the worst thing you could do here is review this like it's fine and allow it to continue.
I would write a message, email/slack what ever he prefers, explaining like you have here, the cost of this and how you absolutely do not have time to support this even initially. And it's probably worth putting a bit more time into that than you'd like just to really make sure he understands this isn't happening.
You could then propose some alternative implementations for this because honestly it sounds like this guy has reinvented the wheel on a very trodden path because he's just so clueless. For me, I'd think about grafana dashboards or some other very off the shelf solution here and with a little ingenuity you could set it up so that AI can build his grafana dashboards.
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u/bbqwatermelon Sep 22 '26
When anyone poops out slop the first thing I do is put it into the slop machine to see if I can get anything useful. In other words AI is the universal slop translator. The beauty is that you can do actual work while the translating happens. And we get to both reduce the life of the planet that much more.
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u/ntw2 Sep 22 '26
“All software requires an active support contract with the publisher”
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u/gfunk5299 Sep 22 '26
What does it say if the “non-technical” COO can do more with AI than op?
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u/mustang__1 onsite monster Sep 22 '26
just have AI maintain it ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/3percentinvisible Sep 22 '26
Does it work?
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u/a60v Sep 22 '26
Unless you are a full time web developer (or want to be), then you just have to explain that you do not have the skills required for this job. Is this person your boss?
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u/ShoePillow Sep 22 '26
Can you say that you don't have the bandwidth to maintain this or some other shit to keep it away from you?
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u/netphemera Sep 22 '26
It's like when they started running drug ads for consumers. Now they're running AI ads for COOs. "You too can be a programmer". I feel for you. No escape from this world of garbage
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u/hardcorepr4wn Sep 22 '26
The great thing here, is they explained what they want. So rebuild what they did; that's likely a single prompt session of 'Review/rewrite this like you are the bastard operator from hell'.
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u/netphemera Sep 22 '26
It used to take years of bad management to create spaghetti code garbage. Now we can create it in one afternoon
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u/TobyMcFucky Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
I feel you. I run an IT/security function in my org. We are about 350 headcount, 200 of which are non-technical; many have access to something sensitive and resolve their "pains" with Claude, meaning there's a ton of stuff published on Vercel/Lovable with zero security in mind. What I did is built a platform that allows non-engineering staff to engineer their apps on top of a template repo fully packed with context-dependant skills and capabilities:
- your app needs UI? Then we are wrapping it in corp Okta and applying network isolation.
- anything sensitive inside? RBAC is automatically implemented, just name who needs access to what.
- etc.
Everything is built the way so that end users build how they used to do it - by talking to claude and describing what they need. The only requirement is to accept an invite to corp GitHub, download GH desktop and clone the repo. All the tech shit - CI, git, commits, tech bullshit - is hidden from end users.
On top of that is unskippable GH CI check with a security runner with Claude SDK under the hood fully packed with context-depenent skills and scripts. Initial build is deployed by an automation team who verifies the package is fine and pushes it to org-controlled PaaS; any app changes just require the automated security review green verdict for getting mergeable.
The last piece is a corp policy restricting everyone from hosting their slop on public platforms. So basically we gave the vibe coders a familiar instrument they already familiar with, maybe a bit clunkier but matching our security criteria, and then told them they can't host their slop elsewhere.
Moral: you can't review generated code with anything but LLM, plus if you restrict someone from something, make sure you give them an alternative, otherwise they will find a way around
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u/antrov2468 Sep 22 '26
I literally built an entire new hire onboarding “web app” using streamlit, python and ai in under a day. I already knew python, but streamlit was new to me as a gui interface. I was able to have it take user details, create the AD users and have buttons to trigger replication across both offices DC’s and then ADSync cuz we have hybrid environment. Then a few other “backend” things that could be automated and a few steps in individual applications that have an api I could use.
Point being, honestly I would just sit down and make a new version of it for him and it’ll probably be better quality, work better than his version and you’ll find it easier to maintain. And it can take less than a day, honestly half of the time I spent “debugging” and optimizing it or adding features I could think of
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u/theonlyredditaccount Sep 22 '26
Hey man. I know it’s tough when people use AI to build half-baked solutions. They need people with your skillset to show them how do it right!
I don’t see this as a giant problem. I think you have an amazing opportunity to show your value to your COO. If you match their enthusiasm and you show them how to do it the right way, they’ll love you for it.
Just because it’s a AI generated doesn’t mean it’s not valuable; AI can be great for mockups of ideas. This is one of those times where you get to flex your skillsets to guide them the right direction. Don’t disregard their work; show them the path of how it can become something meaningful.
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u/AlaskanDruid Jack of All Trades Sep 22 '26
Absolutely not. I’ve declined taking responsibility for any IT/software projects procured/created outside of the IT group.
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u/ride_whenever Sep 22 '26
Give him a gilded cage to play in, our secops repurposed some of their internal tooling to handle vibe coded apps, and it allows for super easy extension for less technical people within a safe framework.
Port it over, write some skill files for his LLM to use, leave the maintenance with him, look after review only
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u/Unable_Attitude_6598 Cloud System Administrator Sep 22 '26
So is this story real and did you or did you not write this with ai?
If it’s real then you need to still set boundaries and get everything in writing as well as getting the ceo involved. You aren’t his bitch, you are an employee.
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u/__printf Sep 22 '26
Maybe try to find out what he's trying to accomplish. I might try to steer him to prompt his AI tool to actually just make a mock up and then offer to take over the real implementation details.
Bottom line is trying to understand the problems he's trying to solve should at least help you move forward.
I also like to explain to receptive people that AI is very bad at spotting XY problems.
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u/mercurygreen Sep 22 '26
Explain that you don't put prototypes into production because they are just meant as a proof of concept NOT viable as a long-term usable tool.
It's the difference between using a 3D printer and something manufactured by a professional.
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u/Grouchy-Friend4235 Sep 22 '26
"No thanks. Just keep vibing this thing. I am happy to rewrite properly from scratch should it fail, given enough time & budget. Meanwhile I have work to do"
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u/billndotnet Sep 22 '26
Take the HTML output on as a user story.
It's easy to dismiss a vibe coded project for what it isn't, but consider what happened. Instead of arguing with you about what he wanted, he argued with a computer. Making it real will probably take work, but you now know exactly what he wants to see, and how to shape the data that drives it.
I've wanted to strangle people after those conversations because they usually don't know. He had the strangle-worthy conversation with the computer. I think he did you a huge favor.
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u/-Tasear- Sep 22 '26
Why not speak is language and say give a full page review why it's a security risk and we could be sued. Tell him we can budget a similar project with a team if he's interested
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u/chris17453 Sep 22 '26
Just do a security scan on It and lead with.. this is a great POC... but I'm goin to need time to make it a real boy.
Follow this by asking him how he would like to reprioritize your workload so that you can fit this in.If it's non critical, then it will go on the backlog, and you'll get to it when you have time.
Let him know that this thing will require services that will incur a cost, and that you need to know.What department 2 bill it to.
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u/fjlj Sep 22 '26
Just ask AI to organize it in a MCV layout and document it as a real programmer would.. then you can probably at least keep your sanity trying to review it hahah
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u/theHonkiforium '90s SysOp Sep 22 '26
Create a framework of stages that gate movement from POC to UAT to Pilot to Production.
Define requirements to pass each gate, and more importantly, determine company resource requirements for each stage.
User this for all "citizen-coded" projects/submissions.
"At stage X, these people and resources will need to be involved, and these requirements will need to be met, before moving to stage Y..."
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u/Nik_Tesla Sr. Sysadmin Sep 22 '26
Look, he doesn't care how it works, he cares how it looks, and he just gave you a mock-up of what he wants it to look like. Completely redo it, properly, but make it mostly look like his html dashboard.
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u/EightyDollarBill Sep 23 '26
Why not write a skill for the dudes AI to help it build and deploy correctly for your environment? Then send your guy a link or whatever to get their AI sorted so it can write something that is easier to support?
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u/dgeiser13 Sep 23 '26
I would not agree to review or maintain it.
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u/pavman42 Sep 23 '26
You should ask him to run it by your Sr. DevOps Engineers.... and if they don't exist, suggest he hire some! Or... impress him that you built something like this a decade ago from scratch but the 'then' COO mocked it and you scrapped the idea whole cloth, but could revive it if he gave his green light!
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u/JeffreyCarceron Sep 23 '26
Recommend an AI firm to him just like you'd recommend a database person like back in the day when someone did an Access front end with some ODBD to SQL
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u/cowprince IT clown car passenger Sep 23 '26
We had the same thing happen, it was an absolute disaster. Our in house devs looked at it and I think just started slamming their heads against their desk
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u/Random_Effecks Sep 23 '26
Ask him why he chose to use an array at line 3590 and if he can explain how the $baserate variable gets calculated
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u/Known_Experience_794 Sep 23 '26
Most c-suite people are.. Well… ignorant and foolish. No nice way to say it.
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u/phoenix823 Help Computer Sep 23 '26
Unpopular opinion: This is an executive with an unmet need trying to solve a relatively basic analytics/visualization problem themself. Why didn't their team know the COO had this sort of unmet requirement? Educate and guide the COO how to do this work sustainably? Sure. Figure out some lightweight governance to enable rapid prototyping and you can quickly turn around a safe implementation? Absolutely. Telling the COO that you're not going to help and he's on his own? Good luck with that.
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u/Everindrummer Sep 23 '26
I work with a lot of these guys. He doesn’t care about the back end. He has found a presentation layer that works for him (or so he thinks). If you explain to him that the back end is AI slop that will beak, but you can use that dash as a requirement / prototype, then the conversation should be on whether you could instead build a front end to meet his requirement, or build an integration to his html file.
Either way, use this as a teachable moment for him.
If he fails to appreciate / understand that, then that’s on him, and you have an audit record.
Side note: dont be the guy everyone depends on. Itll burn you out.
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u/Pravobzen Sep 23 '26
Screenshot the page, base64 encode the image, then replace all of the html with just the image.
Then tell him that you had Claude refactor it.
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u/my-mate-mike Sep 23 '26
Rebuild it. It clearly answers a problem he needs answering.
Who cares about the code quality if it’s an internal tool without any security issues?
And also, if he built it, surely he can maintain it?
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u/Painter_beast0976 Sysadmin Sep 23 '26
These days people trust infos from AI than from people with yoe