Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Scott and Wes answer listener questions about what replaced blogging, what to do while your AI agent works, and who should pay for token costs. They also cover keeping agents from going off the rails, getting your team excited about AI, and staying motivated when AI takes the fun out of coding.

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:40 Welcome to Syntax!

01:37 What’s the Modern Day Equivalent of Blogging?

08:35 What Should You Be Doing While Your Agent Works?

Vibe Stretch

13:23 Brought to you by Sentry!

14:02 How Much Should Your Employer Cover for Token Spend?

18:32 Tracking What You Actually Burn with Codex Bar

20:26 How Do You Code HTML Emails in 2026?

25:22 How Do You Keep an Agent From Going Off the Rails?

Swamp Club

30:23 Steering an Agent Mid Turn: Which Harness Does It Best?

32:44 How Do I Get My Engineers Interested in AI?

35:48 Beyond Telegram: Better Interfaces for Non Coding Agents

38:41 Staying Motivated When AI Takes the Fun Parts of Coding

41:55 Killing Rogue Node Processes and Restarting Your Machine

44:12 Custom Internal Harnesses: Worth It or a Token Hog?

47:47 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: Driving Rogue

Wes: Amazon Basics Electric Screwdriver

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Scott, Wes, and CJ ask whether Ruby on Rails is really dead (and whether Rust is just Rails you don't have to read), then dig into Meta's new Muse agent, which is free, comes with its own VM, and is already reading messages nobody asked it to. Plus: upm, a tiny TypeScript npm replacement, Opus 5.5 moonlighting as a motion designer, Tart VMs on Apple Silicon, and a foundry for gloriously bad web fonts.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

01:11 upm is a tiny fast npm

Pooya Parsa’s launch post

07:34 Zuck cooked with Muse
Mark Zuckerberg’s post

Safety and Security in Muse

Privacy concerns

Ray Wong’s post

19:21 Ruby on Rails is Dead

27:55 loco - Rails for Rust

31:06 Brought to you by Sentry!

33:12 How should new developers learn?

41:40 Opus 5.5 First Impressions

Stephan Livera’s motion graphics with Opus 5.5

Kenn Ejima’s single prompt motion graphics

Andras Bacsai’s Coolify motion graphics

Tyler Shukert’s Supabase motion graphics

Ben Vinegar’s Modem motion graphics

Wes’ gym builder

GFX

58:27 Tart - virtualization toolset for Apple Silicon

01:01:43 jevgrep
is-jeven

01:06:49 SHOW ME YOUR RACK

01:09:04 Chrome gets responsive iframe resizing

01:10:25 Bastardica - bastard web font foundry

01:14:23 Sonnet 5.5 Released

01:16:37 OpenAI Dev Day

01:20:02 Syntax SF Meetup

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Scott and Wes ditch Electron and Tauri for GPUI, the GPU accelerated Rust UI framework from the Zed team. They get into its React-like API, styling that feels a lot like Tailwind, GPUI Kit components, the community fork drama, and the tiny desktop apps Scott has built with it.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!

GPUI

01:24 Electron, Tauri, and the Trouble With Web Views

04:05 Enter GPUI: Why We Don’t Take Money to Talk About Tools

05:32 Brought to you by Sentry.io

05:59 What GPUI Is: GPU Accelerated, Cross Platform, Native All the Way Down

06:50 A React Like API in Rust: Divs, Flex, and Chained Methods

09:35 Components, Props, and State in GPUI

Scott’s GPUI Demo Gist

11:21 How Much of CSS Does GPUI Actually Reimplement?

12:52 Flexbox Everywhere, But Where Is CSS Grid?

14:17 Where Does Your App Logic Live? No RPC Layer Needed

15:53 Render vs RenderOnce: Stateful and Static Components

16:57 GPUI Kit: The shadcn of GPUI

18:46 GPUI CE: The Community Fork and Ecosystem Tension

21:29 Apps Scott Built With GPUI: Gendo, File Bro, and Mr. Space

22:48 Why Tiny Utility Apps Should Stay Tiny

24:25 File Bro: File Automations a la Hazel

25:27 Mr. Space: Building a macOS Window Manager

27:05 The Downsides: No Native UI Elements and No Browser DOM

Scott’s Rust Best Practices Skill

29:56 Testing GPUI Apps With Jev and the Accessibility Tree

gpui-agent

30:39 GPUI Mobile: Experimental, But It Works

GPUI Kit Mobile Docs

gpui-mobile

31:52 Final Verdict: GPUI for Personal Desktop Software

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Is Jev actually a leap forward for classification or just hype and fake demos? We dig in, plus Claude Code’s new AGENTS.md support, TinyCast (the free, open-source Raycast alternative), an iPhone Fold simulator in Xcode, and a stack of dev tools you’ll want to try

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!

01:17 The iPhone Fold Simulator and Foldable Web APIs

Features behind a flag

Syntax Meetup in San Francisco

07:03 Claude Code Finally Supports agents.md
Changelog

11:42 Using Your Claude Subscription Inside PI

13:07 Raycast Pricing Changes and the Rise of Tinycast

18:24 Our Most Used Raycast Features

21:22 Browser Hopping: Back on Helium After Ditching Dia

22:12 1Password’s Redesign and Reliability Problems

23:11 Jev Explained: A Model That Only Answers Questions

31:59 CJ’s Jev Chat Bot Demo With MCP Tools

36:09 The Kevs in the Room: Open Source Jev Alternatives

Cloudflare’s Kev

Jared Palmer’s Kev

45:39 What We’ve Actually Built With Jev So Far

Jev Benchmarks

51:59 Brought to you by Sentry.io

52:55 GPUI Kit: Building Native Rust Desktop Apps

58:07 Antfu’s DevFrame: A Framework for Building Dev Tools

59:45 Where Is the Line on Using AI in Video Editing?

Runwayml Upscaling

01:06:00 AI Upscaled Security Photos and Internet Detectives

01:08:07 Qwen Image 2.1 and Real Transparent Backgrounds

01:10:18 AI Generated Posters Don’t Have to Be Horrible

01:13:28 Orca: A GUI for Wrangling Your Fleet of Agents

01:15:37 Grok 4.7 First Impressions and Its Pricing

01:18:58 Waiting on Google and Microsoft’s Big Models

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Scott and Wes talk about how non-developers are actually using AI today. They also cover the stuff they don’t think holds up, like AI-staged listings and automated marketing.

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:38 Welcome to Syntax!

Wes’ post about using AI

01:50 Finding Parts With AI: Van Buckles and Weird Bolts

03:59 Brought to you by Sentry!

04:37 Fixing Printers, Drivers, and Annoying Home Network Stuff

Skylight Calendar

05:32 Rescuing E-Waste: Flashing a Broken Skylight Calendar

08:42 Red Tape, Permits, and Filling Out Awful PDF Forms

09:57 Self-Hosting Made Easy: Updating Your NAS and Docker Containers

11:18 Fighting Home Assistant Rot With Agents

13:20 Inbox and Calendar Management for a Family of Six

18:05 AI in Real Estate and Property Staging

Real Estate Canada subreddit

21:10 Using Agents for Video Editing and Multicam Automation

23:53 GFX.computer: Building Better Infographics

25:59 Things That Won’t Hold Up: Generated Text and Automated Marketing

30:27 Home Lab Management Over Tailscale and SSH

32:46 3D Printing Parts With Nurb: Stands, Cases, and Airflow

Nurb

34:51 MCP Servers for Software You Only Use Occasionally

36:58 Travel Planning: Great at Logistics, Terrible at Taste

39:31 Proposals and Job Applications: Everybody Sounds the Same

42:14 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: Nomadix Backpack

Wes: Silicone chair socks

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