Prompting AI agents, local-first software, and sync engines: a chat with James Arthur (ElectricSQL)

Back in November 2025, we interviewed James Arthur, co-founder and CEO of ElectricSQL, at SF Ruby Conf.

In this chat, he discusses how he's already using AI agents to improve his team's productivity, how developers should approach using LLMs, what he thinks the future of AI will look like, and how he thinks it'll affect open source. James also invites people to take advantage of Anthropic's engineering guides to learn context engineering and explains the concepts of local-first software and sync engines.

Timestamps:

0:00 James' favorite AI tools
0:30 Predictions about the future of AI
1:08 Advice for developers on using AI better
3:04 What local-first software is
5:21 Sync engines and how they work in practice
7:26 Benefits of the sync-based model
8:13 The impact of AI on open source

Topics include: AI coding, agentic coding, LLM-generated code, ElectricSQL, local-first software, sync engines, Anthropic engineering guides, context engineering, pragmatic coding, open source, AI affecting open source, and the difference between vibecoding and agentic coding.

Видео Prompting AI agents, local-first software, and sync engines: a chat with James Arthur (ElectricSQL) канала Evil Martians