Simon Willison: Showboat and Rodney Let Coding Agents Demo Their Own Work Beyond Automated Tests
simonwillison.net·high signal
Willison's March 9 post details a workflow where agents are primed with uvx showboat/rodney/chartroom --help, allowing them to self-document their outputs as Markdown showcases and drive a CLI browser to demonstrate live behavior. Modern long-context models consume full tool documentation before starting work—making this approach practical without fragile prompt engineering. The pattern shifts verification from human code review to agent-generated live demos, a meaningful workflow change for solo builders.