Show Notes
Scott and Wes ditch Electron and Tauri for GPUI, the GPU accelerated Rust UI framework from the Zed team. They get into its React-like API, styling that feels a lot like Tailwind, GPUI Kit components, the community fork drama, and the tiny desktop apps Scott has built with it.
Show Notes
00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
GPUI
01:24 Electron, Tauri, and the Trouble With Web Views
04:05 Enter GPUI: Why We Don’t Take Money to Talk About Tools
05:32 Brought to you by Sentry.io
05:59 What GPUI Is: GPU Accelerated, Cross Platform, Native All the Way Down
06:50 A React Like API in Rust: Divs, Flex, and Chained Methods
09:35 Components, Props, and State in GPUI
Scott’s GPUI Demo Gist
11:21 How Much of CSS Does GPUI Actually Reimplement?
12:52 Flexbox Everywhere, But Where Is CSS Grid?
14:17 Where Does Your App Logic Live? No RPC Layer Needed
15:53 Render vs RenderOnce: Stateful and Static Components
16:57 GPUI Kit: The shadcn of GPUI
18:46 GPUI CE: The Community Fork and Ecosystem Tension
21:29 Apps Scott Built With GPUI: Gendo, File Bro, and Mr. Space
22:48 Why Tiny Utility Apps Should Stay Tiny
24:25 File Bro: File Automations a la Hazel
25:27 Mr. Space: Building a macOS Window Manager
27:05 The Downsides: No Native UI Elements and No Browser DOM
Scott’s Rust Best Practices Skill
29:56 Testing GPUI Apps With Jev and the Accessibility Tree
gpui-agent
30:39 GPUI Mobile: Experimental, But It Works
GPUI Kit Mobile Docs
gpui-mobile
31:52 Final Verdict: GPUI for Personal Desktop Software
Hit us up on Socials!
Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads
Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads
Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads
Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
More from Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
Scott and Wes talk with Adam Jacob about software factories: what they actually are, why they’re unique to each team, and how to build trust in agent-generated code. They dig into Swamp Club, black box testing, domain driven design, adversarial review for accessibility, and whether unit tests still earn their keep.
Deno is shutting down and the team is heading to Cloudflare — Scott, Wes, and CJ break down what that means for the runtime, JSR, and workerd. Plus OpenCode 2.0 on durable objects, TanStack Start 1.0, SubQ Snap, Gemini 4 Argon, and Wes’s accidental $50 photo frame movement.
Someone just clean-room ported seven Adobe apps to Rust, and Wes is shocked at how good it is. Scott and Wes break down what it gets right, what’s still missing, and why copying software is easy but inventing what comes next is the hard part.
Scott, Wes, and CJ break down the latest Pi updates, including durable long-running agents, Codemode, and MCP support, then debate whether pull requests are dead in favor of issues. Plus Supabase picks up Turso, Screen Studio 4 drops, JavaScript Composites bring value-based equality, and a stack of new AI models from Google, OpenAI, Cloudflare, and more.
Scott and Wes answer listener questions about what replaced blogging, what to do while your AI agent works, and who should pay for token costs. They also cover keeping agents from going off the rails, getting your team excited about AI, and staying motivated when AI takes the fun out of coding.