Wes and Scott talk about the state of AI coding in 2026—from editors and models to agents, skills, slash commands, MCPs, and more. They unpack what these things actually do, how they overlap, and how to use them effectively without overcomplicating your setup.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!

01:39 The tools: editors, terminals, GUIs

05:27 Wes’ and Scott’s current AI setups

13:17 Picking the right model

18:58 How exactly do agents work?

22:32 Subagents and parallel workflows

24:29 Brought to you by Sentry.io

24:54 What goes in agents.md (and what doesn’t)

26:47 Skills vs agents

Skills

Superpowers

34:03 Slash commands as reusable prompts

36:02 Hooks and keeping your code from going off the rails

38:00 Plugins and bundling your setup

39:24 What MCP is and why it’s powerful

40:54 Cloud agents and running jobs remotely

43:47 Choosing the right AI tool

47:41 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint WiFi Smart Lock

Wes: St. Denis Medical

Shameless Plugs

Syntax YouTube Channel

Hit us up on Socials!

Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads