“With these autonomous agents, the experience is very different. It’s more like working on a team…”
I used to hate AI coding assistants. GitHub Copilot, Cursor—all that autocomplete stuff left me cold. When I’m coding, I want to finish my own thoughts. Having something finish my sentences for me? No thanks.
But autonomous agents? That’s something else entirely.
DHH gets it. These aren’t pair programmers who won’t get off the keyboard. They’re more like junior teammates who do the work and then ask for a code review. You set direction, they execute, you merge when it’s good.
He’s been putting Opus 4.5, Gemini 3, and even the Chinese open-weight models (MiniMax M2.1, GLM-4.7) through their paces in OpenCode. The leap from early 2025 to now? “Leagues ahead” is how he puts it.
The hype is out of control though. 90% code written by AI? Come on. DHH’s not buying it either. Hold the line on quality and cohesion, and those numbers crumble.
But here’s the thing—he’s not dismissing it either. “Supervised collaboration, though, is here today.” He’s shipped bugs fixes, features, and entire drafts working alongside agents.
That’s the realistic take. Not “AI will replace us all” and not “it’s all hype.” Just: try it, see where it works, use it where it makes sense.