Changelog Master Feed A new direction for AI developer tooling (Changelog & Friends #112)
10 snips
Oct 10, 2025 
José Valim, the mastermind behind the Elixir programming language and founder of Tidewave, dives into the exciting world of AI developer tooling. He unveils Tidewave, a coding agent that operates directly in the browser, seamlessly integrated with Rails and Phoenix. Valim discusses how AI can boost productivity while highlighting its limitations. He shares insights on using agents for rapid prototyping, managing code execution over frameworks, and creating smoother development workflows. With a vision for better developer experiences, Valim advocates for robust tooling over mere integrations.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Measure Hidden Costs Of Agent Use
- Productivity studies can miss hidden costs like interruptions, retries, and lost flow from bad agent suggestions.
- Small measured gains can still be meaningful when they apply to core parts of developers' workflows.
Run Agents In The Real Browser
- Tidewave runs a coding agent tightly integrated with web frameworks and the browser to close the verification loop.
- Running the agent in your local browser lets it interact with your actual app state and verify behavior, reducing brittle back-and-forths.
Verification Beats Blind Edits
- Coding agents work best when they can see and act on the artifact's runtime context (pages, DB, error pages).
- Embedding agents in the product's environment gives stronger, faster verification than blind code edits.