Builder Methods library
Agentic apps & harnesses
How to make sense of the AI apps out there: chat apps vs file-based apps, UIs vs terminals, agent bots, and the three ways an agent reaches your other tools.
There are a lot of AI apps, and it's easy to spend more time picking one than using one. This reference lesson gives you a way to sort them: chat apps versus file-based apps, app UIs versus terminal CLIs, and the newer category of agent bots that blur the line. I share how I split my own work across them, what agent bots are good for and where they get fragile, and the trend toward hosted versions. It closes with the three ways your agent can reach the apps outside your folders, MCP, API, or a browser, and the rule for choosing between them.
What's covered:
- Chat apps vs file-based apps, and what each one is for
- App UIs vs terminal CLIs, and why the terminal is less intimidating than it looks
- Agent bots: OpenClaw, Hermes, Grok Bot, and how they differ from chat apps
- Self-hosted vs hosted agent bots, and the maintenance trade-off
- Which one, when: how I split my own work today
- MCP vs API vs browser, and the rule for picking one
- Why the course's patterns work in any of these