Remote Ruby Tidewave with José Valim
10 snips
Aug 29, 2025 
José Valim, the visionary behind Elixir and a former Rails core contributor, dives deep into Tidewave, his innovative browser-based coding agent. He discusses its capability for real-time code introspection and automatic testing, drastically improving development efficiency. The conversation also touches on the integration of AI in programming, examining both the challenges and potential it introduces. Valim shares his insights on enhancing front-end development in Rails and the vital role of clear documentation in navigating complex coding projects.
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Browser-First Coding Agent
- TideWave runs inside the browser and links UI elements to their originating framework templates and controllers for precise edits.
- This tight runtime+source integration lets the agent validate changes by controlling the live app and automatically fixing exceptions.
Inspect Before You Instruct
- Use the inspector to select a page element so the agent receives exact template and controller context before editing code.
- Let the agent refresh and interact with the live app so it can detect and fix runtime exceptions automatically.
Runtime Plus Source Beats Reflection Alone
- Runtime introspection complements source reading but does not replace it for writing code because reflection hides where code is defined.
- Best results come from giving the agent both the runtime answers and the relevant source snippets to build a mental model.