Mitchell Hashimoto shares a detailed walkthrough of building Ghostty's unobtrusive macOS update notification feature using AI-assisted coding. The post documents 16 agentic coding sessions, showing the iterative process of prototyping UI, debugging issues, refactoring code, and implementing backend logic. Hashimoto emphasizes the importance of human oversight, pre-AI planning, and cleanup sessions to avoid "slop code." The feature took approximately 8 hours across 3 days and cost $15.98 in AI tokens, demonstrating how AI tools can accelerate development while allowing developers to multitask. The post includes unedited session transcripts and practical tips for effective AI-assisted development.
Table of contents
The FeaturePre-AI PlanningFirst Session: Prototyping the UICleanup SessionsFacing "The Bug"Starting the BackendCleanup Again, Big TimeSimulationLast MileAnything Else?Cost and TimeEndFootnotesSort: