Syntax: Practical Agent Workflows
The Workflow of the Future With Zed
Six selected videos on collaboration, review, remote execution, memory, and MCP
An editorial selection from Syntax's channel uploads, combining the existing Zed/Delta interview with five videos on code review, remote coding agents, long-term memory, and MCP. The summaries distinguish demonstrations, practitioner reports, proposals, and product claims from independently measured outcomes. This is not an official Syntax course or a summary of the full uploads playlist.
In this collection Browse 6 summaries 1 of 6
Delta aims to let developers discuss and review agent work while it is happening, rather than waiting for a commit. Zed co-founder Nathan Sobo describes the beta-stage editor to Syntax hosts Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski. Its underlying database, DeltaDB, tracks versions between commits so code, agent conversations, and human comments can remain connected.
Based on English auto-generated captions, without an original-audio check. This is a founder account of a beta product, not an independent evaluation of team outcomes or reliability.
Key Points Covered
- DeltaDB moves provenance below commits: Sobo describes assigning every evolving software version an address so comments and conversations can attach to work in progress instead of only to committed snapshots 22:44–25:29(opens in a new tab).
- The agent thread and worktree travel together: Sobo describes capturing prompts and activity, letting teammates join a thread, and synchronizing their editable working files. The discussion also covers identifying which agent or model wrote a line 26:34–29:06(opens in a new tab).
- Review can happen during the work: In Sobo's description, participants share the agent, its context window, and code while changes are underway, then still use pull requests and CI as later checks 29:06–32:08(opens in a new tab).
- Synchronized files can still contain incompatible changes: DeltaDB models the file tree in a database and mirrors it to disk for ordinary tools. Sobo says its synchronization can make every replica converge on the same content, but that content may still combine changes that do not work together. The algorithms do not critically depend on a central coordinator; the launch service nevertheless uses a centralized architecture 36:56–42:19(opens in a new tab).
- Cross-version annotations were still in development at recording: The team was building a repository-wide index intended to retrieve a code annotation wherever the marked range remains visible across committed and uncommitted states. Sobo hoped it might ship by publication, but did not confirm that timing 33:10–35:14(opens in a new tab).
- Local and hosted execution can share one thread: Sobo describes desktop participants running locally while browser participants use hosted runners, with work synchronized between them. He says the initial implementation will start simple 43:23–45:06(opens in a new tab).
- Agent output becomes an annotatable document: Instead of confining output to chat bubbles, Delta presents commands, edits, and rich text as a cursor-navigable document where a person can type feedback inline 49:01–50:55(opens in a new tab).
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLyhrxaMIo(opens in a new tab)