Five Slot Machines at Once: Chris Weichel on the Future of Software Development

44 snips

Oct 2, 2025

In this conversation with Chris Weichel, CTO of Ona, they delve into the exciting future of software development with AI agents at the helm. Chris shares insights on the rebranding from Gitpod to Ona, emphasizing the shift towards agent-driven coding. He discusses the essential role of safe, isolated environments for these agents and the fascinating 'five slot machines' effect of multi-agent workflows. With his expertise, he highlights the potential of machine-readable interfaces and how AI is redefining developer tools and productivity.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Environments Must Shift For Agent Scale

Current developer interfaces and laptops are optimized for one deep task at a time and break down with parallel agent workloads.
Ona provides many isolated, task-specific environments to enable parallel agent-driven productivity.

ANECDOTE

Why Gitpod Became Ona

Gitpod's name no longer fit because Kubernetes 'pod' and Git-centric assumptions changed.
The rename to Ona marks a refounding to reflect the company's evolving product and ambition.

INSIGHT

Agents Are A New Abstraction Layer

We passed from handcrafted coding to autocomplete and now to agents that write and modify code at a higher abstraction.
This represents a fundamental shift comparable to past language-level leaps in software development.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

On this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey welcomes back Chris Weichel, CTO of Ona (formerly Gitpod). Chris explains the rebrand and why Ona is building for a future where coding agents, not just humans, write software.
They discuss what changes when agents spin up environments, why multi-agent workflows feel addictive, and how Ona is solving the scaling and safety challenges behind it.
If you’re curious about the next wave of software engineering and how AI will reshape developer tools, this episode is for you.

About Chris: Chris Weichel is the Chief Technology Officer at Ona (formerly Gitpod), where he leads the engineering team behind the company’s cloud-native development platform. With more than two decades of experience spanning software engineering and human–computer interaction, Chris brings a rare combination of technical depth and user-centered perspective to the systems he helps design and build.

He is passionate about creating technology that empowers people and tackling complex engineering challenges. His expertise in cloud-native architecture, programming, and digital fabrication has earned him multiple publications, patents, and industry awards. Chris is continually exploring new opportunities to apply his broad skill set and enthusiasm for building transformative technology in both commercial and research settings.

Show Highlights
(00:00) Introduction to Modern Software Interfaces

(00:55) Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud

(01:02) Introducing Chris Weichel and Ona

(02:23) The Evolution from Git Pod to Ona

(03:26) Challenges and Insights on Company Renaming

(05:16) The Changing Landscape of Software Engineering

(05:54) The Role of AI in Code Generation

(12:04) The Importance of Development Environments

(15:44) The Future of Software Development with Ona

(21:31) Practical Applications and Challenges of AI Agents

(30:01) The Economics of AI in Software Development

(38:11) The Future Vision for Ona

(39:41) Conclusion and Contact Information

Links:
Christian Weichel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-weichel-740b4224/?originalSubdomain=de

Ona: https://ona.com/

https://csweichel.de/

Sponsor: Ona: https://ona.com/