Kiln demo: proof of concept

A native macOS IDE & LLM harness build for readability and collaboration.

My thesis:

1. IDEs still matter
   1. We're still going to be writing (and reading) code.
2. Understanding code has changed
   1. You won't write much code
   2. Not writing code changes how you understand the code
      1. When you're not writing much code, understanding the codebase at all is way harder - you're always onboarding
      2. When you're not writing the code, understanding your local edits is tricky - local changes become mini PRs
   3. Given 1. + 2., maybe it's time to rethink how we present code
3. How to take action is changing
   1. Human + (a suite of) agents and tools need to work effectively together
   2. Where you know what you want to do...
      1. Executing from rigorous, tracked spec is most effective (in this case, I use GitHub issues)
   3. But also, you don't always know what needs doing
      1. Enabling AI proactivity is an unlock
      2. Supporting less technical collaborators (e.g. a product manager) is key too
4. Reviewing the work, will continue to evolve a lot. This I'm less clear on but...
   1. The Git workflow is super unintuitive for new/less technical contributors. We need:
      1. Simplified terminology
      2. Simplified process
      3. Without blocking expert capabilities
   2. Contributors need to review their work before PRing
      1. PRs was already the bottleneck in many teams
      2. Very easy to spam people (esp. in open source) with unvalidated trash

If the workflow of shipping is:

Problem -> Proposed solution/intent -> Execution -> Review/validate -> Merge/deploy

I'm keen to add validation, context, and proactive agentic action at every step, and support human participation (& ownership) in this process. E.g. that even includes problem/proposal validation.