The TMPDIR podcast

2025 Review

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In this episode, we reflect on 2025:

  1. Intro and theme

    • Cliff and Khem look back on 2025, focusing on how AI, Zephyr/Yocto, and
      • tooling changed daily engineering work.

    • AI as co-developer

      • Khem shifts from hand-written scripts to delegating tasks to AI as a
        • co‑developer, not an autonomous agent.
      • Cliff adopts terminal-first AI tools (Cloud Code, etc.) for Bash, Ansible,
        • Dockerfiles, and content workflows (newsletter/blog, diagrams).

      • Doc Driven Development workflow

        • Cloud Code plugin: Doc Driven Development, part of Cliff’s Claude plugins:
          • tmpdir-claude-code-marketplace.
        • Workflow: write docs → AI generates plan → review → AI generates code,
          • treating AI like a compiler whose inputs (docs/plans) are versioned.

        • Zephyr and AI-friendly context

          • Work with Zephyr (and West) keeps BSPs and app code in Git repos, making it
            • easy for AI tools to see full build context and outperform GUI‑centric MCU
            tools with hidden code.
          • Zephyr is expected to become the default RTOS as capable MCUs remain
            • inexpensive.

          • Yoe, Yocto, Jetson, and OTA

            • Jetson Nano and AGX Orin have been added to the Yoe Distribution as
              • reference platforms with swupdate-based OTA and a rootfs+data
              partitioning strategy aimed at real products, not demos.
            • A rolling-release Yocto model plus meta-tegra’s upstream‑first approach
              • keeps changes small and manageable.
            • Staying close to upstream and ensuring BSP changes land there first is
              • called out as key to long-term maintainability of embedded products.

            • Kas and project structure

              • The Yoe Distro is migrating from shell-based project definitions to Kas for
                • more structured, composable project descriptions and easier
                reuse/inheritance.

              • Editor and shell stack

                • Helix editor: helix.
                • Yazi file manager: yazi or org:
                  • yazi-rs.
                • Lazygit: lazygit.
                • Zellij terminal workspace: zellij.
                • Cliff standardizes on Helix plus Yazi, Lazygit, and Zellij for a fast
                  • terminal environment; Khem aliases vi to Helix after finding it better
                  for huge files than Vim-with-plugins.
                • Khem experiments with Nushell’s table-centric pipelines, seeing potential
                  • with AI but noting syntax incompatibility with traditional shells.

                • Custom tools: BRun and HFID

                  • BRun (Cliff’s project): brun.
                  • BRun provides a YAML-defined, local workflow runner (GitHub Actions–like)
                    • for native Yocto builds, with chained tasks and smart notifications
                    (emails, Notify.sh, tail logs on failure).
                  • HFID is provided as a hosted service (not open source); concept and usage
                    • are described at HFID and in posts linked from
                    BEC Systems.

                  • Desktops, Omarchy, distros, and servers

                    • Khem runs Hyprland tiling on Arch for low-memory build machines while still
                      • using KDE elsewhere; Arch makes switching easy at login.
                    • Omarchy, DHH’s Arch+Hyprland Arch based distro for developers, is
                      • highlighted as a polished, opinionated entry point for new Linux users:
                      omarchy.org.
                    • Omarchy is great for people who want a ready-made Arch+Hyprland setup,
                      • while vanilla Hyperland is a better fit for experienced users who already
                      have strong preferences.
                    • Arch on servers works well when combined with Ansible-based configuration
                      • and non-golden-machine practices so systems can be rebuilt quickly if
                      needed.

                      Discuss this episode at our

                      community site.

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