This week on Fresh from the Labs, Shilpa, Kevin, and Jared dive into the powerful new Codex CLI release. Based on GPT-5 but custom-trained for real-world agentic use cases, this release confirms their prediction that major labs are now building "first-party agents," moving the key primitive up the stack from the model to the agent itself.

Kevin and Jared share their hands-on impressions and reveal the intricate, spec-driven workflows they've developed to harness its power. They detail their process of prompt looping, using GPT-5 Pro to create detailed specs and then feeding them to Codex, and using automated feedback loops ("check your work") to run agents on complex tasks for hours at a time. The discussion offers a masterclass in systematically building guardrails and support systems around agents to achieve highly performant, real-world results.

The conversation then shifts to the state of the market, sparked by Cognition's massive $400 million fundraise at a $10.2 billion valuation. The team voices their skepticism and questions what the VCs are seeing, debating if it's a strategic play or simply a case of "VC FOMO." This leads to a candid discussion about a recent Wall Street Journal article on the "996" AI founder lifestyle, the pressures of the current hype cycle, and whether that relentless pace is truly sustainable or effective.

Join us for a deep dive into advanced AI coding techniques, the state of AI startup valuations, and a reality check on the pressures of building in a bubble.