Devtools must be open source

Five years ago, engineers often did not write their own programs. They relied on programs written by others to write programs for others. Many customized the programs they used via config files, plugins, or extensions, and used their own software. It was uncommon to discover someone had written software for themselves, such as a blog, home automation, or a homelab.

Writing software for personal use was not always practical, as it consumed a lot of time and was challenging to maintain later. Many engineers abandoned their custom software for more standard environments to quickly produce code. Despite this, personalizing software has become easier today. Agents can not only generate code for specific purposes but also manage the synchronization with upstream releases.

This allows for easier initiation and maintenance of customization. The process can be integrated directly into an agent, requiring no programming skills. By loading the prompts into a skill, they can be easily accessible to the agent. In a personal project, the author combines agents writing code with human review before pushing to serious systems.

As models improve, the reviewer focuses on architecture, unexpected use cases, and visual output. A tool called "meat.dev" was created to automate the review process by using LLMs to strip away unnecessary lines of code. The tool can be integrated into Shelley, the agent used for writing code, to pre-process commits in the background before the reviewer examines the diff.

This integration saves time and provides a more efficient review process. The author emphasizes the importance of personalization in software development, as it enhances the overall functionality and user experience.