
AppStories Pick a Pair: New Apps We’re Using
109 snips
Feb 16, 2026 They run through new apps they are trying, like a minimalist menu-bar calendar, a code-centric editor, and a cross-device snippets manager. They discuss agent-driven coding tools, a project-scoped AI coding app, and terminal/SSH workflows on iPhone and iPad. Short segments highlight shortcuts, automation, and integrations across platforms.
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Agents Plan And Test Before Building
- Federico emphasizes coding agents' ability to research and test approaches before building, which improves one-shot success.
- He uses Claude and CloudCode to automate complex Shortcuts creation by planning and validating steps first.
Scraping The Shortcuts Archive
- Federico tested his Shortcuts Playground by having Claude scrape the MacStories Shortcuts archive and generate a JSON index for 319 items.
- He reports building simple shortcuts in about a minute with CloudCode and faster with the paid fast mode.
Codex Brings Project-Focused Agent UI
- Codex on macOS provides a project-oriented UI with sidebar conversations, skill management, and automations that improve agent workflows.
- Federico values the file-access capabilities, skill metadata (openai.yaml), and scheduled automations for non-programming tasks.

