A dark factory (also called a "lights-out factory") is a manufacturing facility that runs entirely without human workers — so fully automated that the lights don't even need to be on. Robots and machines handle everything, from assembly to quality control, 24/7 without breaks.

Applied to software development, the term describes the vision of a fully automated code pipeline where AI agents write, test, review, and deploy software with little to no human involvement. Instead of developers typing code, they define goals and let AI systems handle the rest — generating functions, catching bugs, running tests, and shipping updates autonomously.

We're not fully there yet, but tools like AI coding agents (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Devin, Cursor) are moving in this direction. The practical implication is that human developers may shift from writing code to supervising, directing, and validating what AI systems produce — much like a factory floor manager overseeing machines.