Syntax &#8211; Tasty Web Development Treats

978: Should A New Coder Use AI? Feb 11, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott answer your questions about AI agents, learning to code with AI, pagination patterns, skilling up from outdated tech stacks, balancing side projects with family life, real-world hacking attempts, and more!

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
01:39 Are devs really running multiple AI agents at once?
- Scott’s Tweet
09:41 Brought to you by Sentry.io
12:45 What is pagination and why do websites use it?
18:17 Should beginners use AI while learning to code?
30:24 The real-world skills CS degrees don’t teach you
35:59 Someone tried to hack Syntax
38:12 How Wes and Scott became co-hosts
42:00 Moving from junior to mid-level when your skills are outdated
45:42 How do you balance time for side projects, life, and family
52:45 Building a ChatGPT-style RAG search for your resume
56:15 Why Chad Whitacre videos were on the Syntax YouTube channel
- Chad’s YouTube Channel
58:44 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

977: We built a CSS Challenge platform Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

Scott and Wes break down how they built SynHax, the real-time CSS Battle app powering the upcoming Mad CSS tournament. From SvelteKit and Zero to diffing algorithms, sync conflicts, and a last-minute hackweek glow-up, this one’s a deep dive into shipping ambitious web apps fast.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:50 March Mad CSS Tournament.
03:19 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
03:59 What the heck is a CSS Battle?
05:34 The tech stack.
- 06:30 Svelte Kit.
- 06:44 Zero Sync.
  - Zero Docs
  - Zero Svelte.
- 07:32 Drizzle.
- 07:58 Supabase.
- 08:23 Graffiti.
- 10:45 Sync Server.
- 12:10 Cloudflare Workers.
- 12:23 Local File System.
13:26 How Zero Works.
- 13:48 Zero Sync Client.
- 15:39 API server.
19:34 Dealing with states and conflicts.
24:25 The Hackweek Project.
25:29 The Diffing Algorithm.
35:22 The bugs.

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976: Pi - The AI Harness That Powers OpenClaw W/ Armin Ronacher & Mario Zechner Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott talk with Armin Ronacher and Mario Zechner about PI, a minimalist agent harness powering tools like OpenClaw. They unpack why Bash is “all you need,” the risks of agents, workflow adaptability, and where AI coding agents are actually headed.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
03:28 What is Pi, and why does it matter?
- OpenClaw
05:54 What do we actually mean by “agents”?
11:04 Prompt injection: how LLMs get tricked
14:19 Is Claude Cowork actually secure?
22:01 How Armin and Mario use agents day to day
26:37 Brought to you by Sentry.io
27:25 Memory and search: teaching agents to remember
33:04 Do coding agents even need memory?
34:36 “Bash is all you need”
37:21 Adding power: how agents learn new tricks
47:02 Tools and models Armin and Mario are using right now
54:15 Sick picks + shameless plugs

Sick Picks

Mario: Cards for Ukraine
Armin: Pro-Ject Audio Turntable

Shameless Plugs

Armin:
- Thorsten Ball Newsletter
- Simon Willison

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975: What’s Missing From the Web Platform? Feb 02, 2026

Show notes

Scott and Wes run through their wishlist for the web platform, digging into the UI primitives, DOM APIs, and browser features they wish existed (or didn’t suck). From better form controls and drag-and-drop to native reactivity, CSS ideas, and future-facing APIs, it’s a big-picture chat on what the web could be.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- Wes Tweet
00:39 Exploring What’s Missing from the Web Platform
02:26 Enhancing DOM Primitives for Better User Experience
03:59 Multi-select + Combobox.
- Open-UI
04:49 Date Picker.
- Thibault Denis Tweet
07:18 Tabs.
08:01 Image + File Upload.
09:08 Toggles.
10:23 Native Drag and Drop that doesn’t suck.
12:03 Syntax wishlist.
12:06 Type Annotations.
15:07 Pipe Operator.
16:33 APIs We Wish to See on the Web
18:31 Brought to you by Sentry.io
19:51 Identity.
21:33 getElementByText()
24:09 Native Reactive DOM. Templating in JavaScript.
24:48 Sync Protocol.
25:52 Virtualization that doesn’t suck.
27:40 Put, Patch, and Delete on forms.
- Ollie Williams Tweet
- SnorklTV Tweet
28:55 Text metrics: get bounding box of individual characters.
29:42 Lower Level Connections.
29:50 Bluetooth API.
30:47 Sockets.
31:29 NFC + RFID.
34:34 Things we want in CSS.
34:40 Specify transition speed.
35:24 CSS Strict Mode.
36:25 Safari moving to Chromium.
36:37 The Need for Diverse Browser Engines
37:48 AI Access.
44:49 Other APIs
46:59 Qwen TTS
48:07 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: Monarch
Wes: Slonik Headlamp

Shameless Plugs

Scott: Syntax on YouTube

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974: Clawdbot (Moltbot), Agents and the Age of Personal Software Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott talk about building hyper-specific personal software with AI. They explore personal agents, home automation, JSON-as-a-database, and how LLMs unlock fast, custom apps that reduce friction and replace bloated SaaS.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
01:53 What is personal software (and why it matters)
04:49 Using AI agents to build hyper-specific apps for yourself
- Clawdbot
- ClawdHub
13:43 Supercharging your dev workflow with Tailscale
19:06 Privacy when working with LLMs
- MLX-Audio
21:39 Brought to you by Sentry.io
22:21 Real-world personal app ideas
39:14 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: FTPManager
Wes: Roku Streaming Stick

Shameless Plugs

Syntax YouTube Channel

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973: The Web’s Next Form: MCP UI (with Kent C. Dodds) Jan 26, 2026

Show notes

Scott and Wes sit down with Kent C. Dodds to break down MCP, context engineering, and what it really takes to build effective AI-powered tools. They dig into practical examples, UI patterns, performance tradeoffs, and whether the future of the web lives in chat or the browser.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:44 Introduction to Kent C. Dodds
02:44 What is MCP?
03:28 Context Engineering in AI
04:49 Practical Examples of MCP
06:33 Challenges with Context Bloat
08:08 Brought to you by Sentry.io
09:37 Why not give AI API access directly?
12:28 How is an MCP different from Skills
14:58 MCP optimizations and efficiency levers
16:24 MCP UI and Its Importance
19:18 Where are we at today with MCP
24:06 What is the development flow for building MCP servers?
27:17 Building out an MCP UI.
29:29 Returning HTML, when to render.
36:17 Calling tools from your UI
37:25 What is Goose?
38:42 Are browsers cooked? Is everything via chat?
43:25 Remix3
47:21 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Kent: OneWheel

Shameless Plugs

Kent: http://EpicAI.pro,http://EpicWeb.dev,http://EpicReact.dev

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972: These Things Make Your App Feel Like Crap on Mobile Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott talk about why mobile web apps often feel “janky” compared to native—and how to fix it. They cover input zooming, accidental horizontal scroll, pointer/user-select quirks, frame rate consistency, full-page refreshes, and more.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
01:11 Brought to you by Sentry.io
02:57 Zooming inputs
06:11 Horizontal scrolling
08:49 Proper use of pointer-events: none, and user-select: none
11:27 Allowing zoom on everything
16:37 Cleaning up the “jank”
19:48 Full page refresh
24:05 Slow loading times
29:50 Cumulative layout shift
32:47 Address bars and viewport units
- Dynamic Viewport Units
35:34 Full-width scroll traps

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971: Stackoverflow and Firefox are Dead? Jan 19, 2026

Show notes

Is Stack Overflow actually dying, and what does that mean in an AI-driven dev world? Scott and Wes break down the latest web dev news, from Firefox’s AI crossroads and Apple’s browser engine changes to new tools, docs, and spicy browser updates.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
02:36 Stack Overflow is Officially Dead
05:40 AI’s Impact on Software Development
07:56 Brought to you by Sentry.io
08:20 Micro QuickJS for Embedded Systems
13:03 Open Workers: A Cloudflare Alternative
20:09 React Aria has new Docs
24:12 Firefox and the AI Dilemma
- The Mozilla Announcement
31:11 Apple’s Browser Engine Changes
- Using alternative browser engines in Japan.
36:12 Fractured JSON for Better Readability
37:45 New Chrome Permissions Dialogue
- Chrome Network Access
41:15 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: TRMNL E-Ink Display
Wes: ACEBOTT

Shameless Plugs

Scott: Syntax on YouTube

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