The Context Window

AI is making it easier than ever for individuals to build software, but speed alone doesn't create sustainable products. In this episode of The Context Window, Brandon Mathis sits down with Gant Laborde to discuss how engineering teams may need to evolve as AI becomes a core part of the software development lifecycle. The conversation explores the concept of the "AI Triforce," a fram...

Claude Code's recent quality issues sparked a broader conversation about transparency, reliability, and vendor lock-in across AI-powered developer tools. Brandon Mathis, Coston Perkins, and Jonathan Fontanez discuss Anthropic's explanation for the degradation, the challenges of relying on closed agent systems, and the risks organizations face when critical development workflows depend on t...

In this episode of The Context Window, Brandon Mathis and Jonathan Fontanez explore a provocative question emerging in AI-assisted development: could Markdown become the next programming language? Using examples from agentic workflows, Claude Code skills, MCP integrations, and evolving AI harnesses, they unpack how structured Markdown files are increasingly being used to orchestrate repeatable wor...

In this episode of The Context Window, Brandon Mathis and Coston Perkins unpack one of the biggest shifts happening in AI-assisted development: when to let agents explore freely, and when to pull workflows back into deterministic, repeatable systems. Using real engineering examples like database migrations, CI pipelines, financial reporting, and code cleanup, they break down why relying entirely o...

In this video, Brandon Mathis and Ben Lesh break down the emerging MCP Apps protocol and what it means for the future of AI-powered applications. Drawing from hands-on experimentation with tools like ChatGPT Apps, Claude, Codex, and MCP servers, they explore how developers can build interactive applications directly inside AI chat experiences using standardized protocols, iframe-based UI rendering...

Tracy Lee and Brandon Mathis break down the latest wave of AI news and what it means for how we work. They talk through Anthropic’s new Claude Cowork experience, the growing trend of agentic tools that can interact with files and workflows on your computer, Perplexity’s push toward AI-driven operating environments, and the bigger question of whether keyboards and traditional interfaces are startin...

In this episode of The Context Window, Tracy Lee is joined by Brandon Mathis and Ben Lesh to talk about what’s actually happening with MCP now that the negative discourse has cooled off and builders have moved on to shipping. They break down the difference between MCP and MCP apps, why the app layer matters for real data, and interactivity, and how teams can reuse existing web components inside ch...

In this episode of The Context Window, the team reacts to OpenAI’s acquisition of OpenClaw and what it signals about where agent tooling is heading and how much responsibility we’re starting to hand to AI inside real workflows. They also talk through the rise of skill marketplaces, when installing shared capabilities genuinely improves productivity and when it introduces security and reliability c...

This week on The Context Window, Tracy Lee, Brandon Mathis, and Ben Lesh unpack the chaos around emerging agent tools like OpenClaw, including naming drama, security risks in downloadable skill marketplaces, and the implications of giving agents access to local files. They also compare Codex, Cursor, and Claude, discussing developer experience, where each tool helps, and why vibe coding breaks dow...

In this episode of The Context Window, Tracy Lee is joined by Elliott Fouts, Ben Lesh, and Brandon Mathis to break down what is changing right now in AI assisted software development. They start with Cursor subagents and why the real win is fresh context windows that cut hallucinations, avoid compaction drift, and let agents run multi step work with less micromanagement. From there, they connect i...

Tracy Lee, Brandon Mathis, and Ben Lesh break down the latest AI hot takes, starting with the leaked Sentry email and the debate over whether $100/day on AI tools is real or even worth worrying about. They dig into why AI hallucinates, how most people trigger it with vague prompts, and why using AI well is quickly becoming a real engineering skill. Along the way they debate juniors vs seniors with...

In this episode of The Context Window, Tracy Lee, Ben Lesh, and Brandon Mathis dig into what people miss with Cursor and Claude Code, like feeding the tools the right documentation, using multiple agents to review output, and treating the model less like a genius and more like a fast junior developer that needs constant direction and code review. They talk about why tab development still wins in s...

Tracy Lee and A.D. Slaton sit down on The Context Window to unpack a wild week in AI, starting with the eye popping 500 billion dollars spent on AI infrastructure in 2025 and why the Cognizant CEO still says enterprise value is missing. They dig into reports of ChatGPT going “code red” in response to Gemini 3, what that means for OpenAI, and what it means for everyday builders trying to ship real...

In this episode of The Context Window, our panel discusses Anthropic’s possible 2026 IPO and what it signals for the AI ecosystem, the biggest AI and Bedrock announcements coming out of AWS re:Invent, and how Google’s latest Gemini releases actually perform for developers writing and shipping code. Brandon Mathis, Tracy Lee, and A.D. Slaton break down whether Gemini is worth using day to day, how...

In this episode of The Context Window, Tracy, Brandon, and AD tackle the spicy question everyone is asking right now: are MCPs actually dead, or are we just misusing them? They unpack the tension between MCPs and good old CLIs, talk about when you really need a protocol versus when a simple script will do, and why over-abstracting everything into an MCP can wreck your context window instead of hel...

Are we hitting peak Gemini and are open models like Kimi K2 about to challenge GPT 5 and Claude for real developer use? In this episode, Tracy Lee, A D Slaton, and Brandon Mathis talk honestly about which models they actually lean on for daily engineering work, where Gemini falls short with tool calling, and why Claude and GPT 5 still feel more trustworthy. They dig into Kimi K2 from Moonshot Labs...

The browser wars are back with AI at the center. Tracy Lee, Brandon Mathis, and A D Slaton break down OpenAI Atlas, Perplexity Comet, Arc and Dia from The Browser Company, and what agentic browsing means for Google, SEO, and engineering workflows. We dig into privacy and tracking with referrer headers and Braze, prompt injection risk, accessibility, and why LLM first interfaces may change front en...

Tracy Lee (CEO, This Dot Labs), Brandon Mathis (Engineering Lead), and A.D. Slaton (VP Engineering) debate agentic coding in the CLI vs. the browser, share hands-on workflows (multi-model collab: Claude ↔︎ Gemini ↔︎ “Codex”/OpenAI), and talk practical enablement: how seniors capture tribal knowledge with voice + transcripts, where GitHub Copilot fits, and what it takes to run safe pilots on Bedroc...