Two small tips for Apple devs starting agentic coding

I've noticed increased chatter in my feed lately about Apple-centric developers experimenting with agentic coding, and I have two recommendations for those diving in.

First, I strongly suggest trying Claude Code over Xcode's new agentic tool. Further, you really should use Opus during your initial tests and exploration to ensure you're leveraging the best available technology. This will make sure you’re experiencing the actual state of the art rather than something a bit behind the times.

Second, hold off on forming a final judgment about the quality until you've invested some serious time. You might have the impression that you just give the model some vague instruction and it makes magic happen. That's really not the case. If you spend just ten minutes with it and don't feel like an expert, don't consider it a failure. That's like someone opening Xcode with no prior experience, trying to write an app for ten minutes, and then being unimpressed with the results. Developing high-quality software remains a genuine human skill, and while these tools have improved unbelievably, you still need to invest time to understand how they work and how to use them effectively. You're still an engineer, and you need to spend time with the tools to understand how to use them effectively.