But the main reason I wouldn't install it despite being happy customizing linux is that it's yet another black box I need to trust and that knows way too much. It's really insane how much you need to compromise your security on macos to have a decent developer experience.

Our software stack is the opposite of that.

Say "I want HN client for mobile", "must notify me about comments", you see it and you add "should support dark mode". Can you see how that is much less than anything in any programming language?

It's just that we're lazy. After being able to chat, I don't see people going back. You can't just paste some error into the specs, you can't paste it image and say it make it look more like this. Plus however well designed the spec, something like "actually make it always wait for the user feedback" can trigger changes in many places (even for the sake of removing contradictions).

You talk with agent A it only modifies this spec, you still chat and can say "make it prettier" but that agent only modifies the spec, the spec could also separate "explicit" from "inferred".

And of course agent B which builds only sees the spec.

User actually can care about diffs generated by agent A again, because nobody wants to verify diffs on agents generated code full of repetition and created by search and replace. I believe if somebody implements this right it will be the way things are done.

And of course with better models spec can be used to actually meaningfully improve the product.

Long story short what industry misses currently and what you seem to be understanding is that intent is sacred. It should be always stored, preferably verbatim and always with relevant context ("yes exactly" is obviously not enough). Current generation of LLMs can already handle all that. It would mean like 2-3x cost but seem so much worth it (and the cost on the long run could likely go below 1x given typical workflows and repetitions)

I've created some chinese characters learning website and I took me typing 1/3 of LoTR to get there[1]. I would have typed like 1% of that writing code directly. It is a different process, but it still needs some direction.

1. https://hanzirama.com/making-of

    At least 225 judges have ruled in more than 700 cases that the administration's mandatory immigration detention policy likely violates the right to due process[1] The Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause generally requires those having federal funds cut off to receive notice and an opportunity for a hearing, which was not provided in many of DOGE's spending freezes[2]

1. https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal...

2. https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/many-trump-admi...

I was thinking that tokens spent in such case could also be an interesting measure, but some agent can do small useful refactoring. Although prompt could specify to do the minimal change required to achieve the goal.

> We’ve rewritten Claude Code’s terminal rendering system to reduce flickering by roughly 85%.

tells you all you need to know

and I keep running it remotely through tmux, that explains so many things

edit: if they are writing it in react anyway (sic!) maybe we could at least get a web interface, skipping mapping it to terminal output part ..