Maven Ventures

Agentic Workflows in Java and Quarkus

A technical walkthrough demonstrating how to build and run agentic workflows on the JVM using the Agentican framework and Quarkus. The guide covers prerequisites (Quarkus, Java 25, Maven/Gradle, an LLM API key), adding the Agentican Quarkus runtime dependency, defining agents/skills/workflows via an agentican-catalog.yaml file, configuring LLM providers (default: Anthropic with claude-sonnet-4-5; OpenAI example using gpt-4o-mini), creating typed workflow instances using Java records, and exposing a REST endpoint to start workflows. It also describes built-in integrations: MCP (Model Context Protocol) and Composio (100+ SaaS toolkits like Slack, Notion, GitHub), plus runtime configuration options for multiple named LLMs and examples of looping and branching workflow steps.

Create Consistent Brand Imagery with Midjourney

AI creative director Jamey Gannon demonstrates a streamlined workflow for producing consistent, on-brand imagery using Midjourney, Nano Banana and related AI image tools. The session focuses on building effective mood boards, using Midjourney style references (SREFs), developing personalization codes, iterative testing with minimal prompts, and leveraging Nano Banana for targeted refinements. The episode also covers organizing visual reference libraries, creating realistic AI self-portraits, troubleshooting, and packaging a repeatable imagery system that clients can use to generate consistent assets.

Sensor Tower Acquires Data.ai; Minute Media Secures Sports Illustrated

AdExchanger's Tuesday news round-up covers two major moves in advertising and media: Sensor Tower has acquired its rival Data.ai (formerly App Annie), with terms undisclosed; Sensor Tower has raised $46 million to date, while Data.ai has raised about $157 million previously. The deal comes as profitability pressures grow in the app analytics space due to policy and platform changes by Apple and Google that hinder data collection. In media licensing news, Minute Media has secured distribution rights to Sports Illustrated for at least 10 years, per The New York Times. Minute Media also owns The Players’ Tribune and FanSided, and says SI’s print edition will continue while long-form journalism is deprioritized in its strategy; SI layoffs occurred in January. Separately, the EU Commission is holding DMA compliance workshops with Apple in the hot seat, discussing Safari defaults, forced scroll, and browser code governance on iOS.