506: We have no skills

James and Frank unpack the exploding world of AI coding agents—covering instructions, MCP tools, custom agents, hooks, plugins and why “skills” matter. They walk through the new .NET Skills repo (P/Invoke, MSBuild, diagnostics, binlogs), show how skills act like practical, on‑demand tutorials for niche tasks, and sketch how tooling will soon auto-load the right skills so agents can just do the thing for you. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

On this episode we wade through Apple’s drip‑fed “event week,” from the budget iPhone 17E to the new MacBook Neo/Air M5 and the pricey Studio Display, and argue who each device is really for. The big takeaway: 8GB of RAM is borderline unusable for modern web and dev workflows—buy up if you can—while the Air M5 looks like the sweet spot; plus a fun detour on using Copilot/Fleet to scaffold apps in minutes. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

Frank Kruger celebrates iCircuit’s 15‑year journey—from an iPad‑era $20 launch and surprising overnight success to the present—unpacking the tradeoffs between maintaining a flagship app and chasing new side projects. He offers candid lessons on pricing, backporting legacy fixes, modernizing pipelines, and explains how AI agents have reshaped his workflow and will power the next wave of iCircuit features. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

On this episode we dive into Tiny Tool Town — a GeoCities‑style app hub for tiny developer utilities — and James walks us through building Tiny Clips, a Mac toolbar screen‑capture app he prototyped and shipped using Copilot, agentic workflows, and a plan‑implement‑review cycle. Expect practical takeaways on multi‑model AI pipelines (planning with 5.2, coding with Codex/Opus), CI/publishing tips, sandboxing/TestFlight pitfalls, and why tiny apps are booming. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

Discover the machine learning breakthrough changing everything: rectified flow. Frank breaks down how this revolutionary technique replaces 1,000-step diffusion with just 10, delivering faster and higher-quality image and video generation. Learn why major players are adopting it and how it's democratizing AI for everyday creators. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

In this episode James and Frank walk through the latest Copilot CLI power-ups—Autopilot loops, experimental Fleet/parallel agents, and Opus model/context updates—while demoing how they used plan mode to spin up a full MAUI pet‑insulin app end-to-end. Learn what Autopilot and Fleet actually do, how parallel agents orchestrate work, plus practical tips (watch your context window, use plan mode) for turning AI agents into fast prototypes. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

On our 500th episode James and Frank celebrate the milestone, reminisce about their mobile‑dev roots, and dig into how AI, the Copilot CLI/SDK and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) are reshaping workflows. Frank demos an MCP‑powered tool that turns app reviews into prioritized GitHub issues and automations — a real example of AI-as-glue — with practical takeaways on prompt engineering, UI extensions, and when to automate versus curate manually. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

In episode 499 James and Frank dive into the messy, exciting world of coding agents — from burning through Copilot credits and avoiding merge conflicts to practical workflows for letting agents run tasks while you sleep. They share real tips: break big features into bite-sized tasks, have agents ask clarifying questions, and use Copilot CLI or the new SDK to resolve conflicts, auto-fix lint/build failures, and automate mundane repo work. The conversation then maps the evolution from simple completions to autonomous loops like Ralph — a structured, repeatable process that generates subtasks, runs until acceptance tests pass, and updates your workflow. If you’re curious how agents, MCPs and SDKs can elevate your dev flow or spark new automations, this episode gives pragmatic examples, trade-offs, and inspiration to start experimenting today. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

This episode opens with mic and Nintendo banter before plunging into macOS release pain points: sandboxing, hardened runtime, notarization, Sparkle auto‑updates, and automating releases with GitHub Actions and tags. James and Frank offer practical tips—drag builds into /Applications to test signing—and unpack .NET 10 trimming/reflection pitfalls and CI/CD quirks for anyone shipping native apps outside the App Store. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

In this episode James and Frank dive into the practical realities of using AI in everyday development—arguing that AI shines in brownfield (existing) code because it respects your architecture, while greenfield work rewards iterative prompting. They unpack model quirks: context-window limits, hallucinations, and why trying different models matters. The heart of the show is Frank’s nerdy delight: feeding a 64KB EEPROM through a disassembler and having Sonnet decompile it into readable C, exposing a PID autopilot and hardware checks—proof that AI can accelerate reverse engineering and embedded work. Along the way they share hands-on tips (trim and clean context, use disassembly first, tweak prompts), and fun examples of AI-generated icons and AppleScript. A must-listen for devs curious how AI can supercharge real projects. Follow Us Frank: Twitter, Blog, GitHub James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface ⭐⭐ Review Us ⭐⭐ Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm