CJ Hess is a software engineer at Tenex who has built some of the most useful tools and workflows for being a “real AI engineer.” In this episode, CJ demonstrates his custom-built tool, Flowy, that transforms Claude’s ASCII diagrams into interactive visual mockups and flowcharts. He also shares his process for using model-to-model comparison to ensure that his AI-generated code is high-quality, and why he believes we’re just at the beginning of a revolution in how developers interact with AI.

What you’ll learn:

How CJ built Flowy, a custom visual planning tool that converts JSON files into interactive mockups and flowcharts
Why visual planning tools are more effective than ASCII diagrams for complex UI and animation workflows
How to create and use Claude Code skills to extend your development environment
Using model-to-model comparison (Claude + Codex) to improve code quality
How to build your own ecosystem of tools around Claude Code
The value of bypassing permissions in controlled environments to speed up development