Side Project Spotlight

Steve puts BentoFit in the loop, using agentic coding to add themes and straighten out the app's Swift package structure. The Trio digs into Mike Zornek's three-year AI-coding journey, the skills and harnesses shaping Steve's workflow, and why human judgment still matters when the robot says it is done. Even with better models in the driver's seat, Xcode always finds a way to keep things interesting.

## Chapters

00:00 Introductions

01:10 Side Projects & the AI Moment

07:38 Agentic Coding Tools & Harnesses

16:22 AI Workflows & Decision Fatigue

28:13 Software Factories & Loop Engineering

38:19 Building BentoFit with AI

48:15 Where AI Coding Breaks Down

55:01 IRL Meetup & Signoff

56:27 Tag

## Show Notes

- Steve introduces BentoFit, a HealthKit dashboard getting a new round of AI-assisted development.

- A good harness can matter as much as the model because it keeps tools, feedback, and code changes moving in a loop.

- Steve prefers Codex and OpenCode outside Xcode, then reaches back into Xcode through its MCP tools for builds, tests, and Simulator.

- Mike Zornek's three-year AI-coding notes spark a conversation about thoughtful adoption instead of blindly chasing every new workflow.

- Matt Pocock's skills help turn fuzzy ideas into explicit decisions, shared terminology, specifications, and tickets.

- Answering dozens of agent questions can sharpen a design, but it also trades coding flow for relentless decision fatigue.

- Steve's practical loop has an agent implement the spec, review its own work, fix what it finds, run the tests, and stop for human verification.

- The Trio remains skeptical of software factories when a project cannot be fully specified or automatically checked.

- For BentoFit, agents built theme infrastructure and reorganized local Swift packages in a few hours instead of several evenings.

- Widgets, watchOS targets, worktrees, and Xcode project files still invite expensive loops, crashes, and the occasional hard reset.

## Links

**BentoFit**

Website: https://bentofit.app

**AI Coding**

Mike Zornek, "Three Years Coding with AI": https://mikezornek.com/posts/2026/7/three-years-coding-with-ai/

Matt Pocock's Skills: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/tree/main

**Upcoming PhillyCocoa Event**

Beyond the Simulator: Perspectives on Modern App Development: https://luma.com/mwcqd1cl

Thursday, August 13, 5:45 PM - 8:00 PM

2300 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA

**PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.