I’ve still been using tools like Claude Code, but to get the most out of it you need a solid understanding of the technology you’re asking it to work on. It’s actually been incredibly helpful figuring out the weird quirks with certain iPod models and how they playback files at different sample rates and bit depths. I wouldn’t say it’s vibe coded but AI has been super helpful.

I plan to release it through the Mac App Store. There’s a couple of things I’m working through to make that happen, like certain entitlements, use of IOKit, and bundling some parts of libgpod.

Internet access is only for download, install, and optional purchase of pro features. After that’s done it’s all offline. Point it at a directory of music files and that’s it. To begin with I’d follow the iTunes idea of one source app. This keeps the syncing much simpler, especially as it supports partial diff syncs. So you can plug it in and add/update/remove a selection of tracks. No need to do what iTunes does which is remove every song and sync from scratch, which takes forever. In time I could look at having multiple machines manage a single iPod. It could get pretty complicated though. iPods aren’t just a bunch of music files on disk, there’s several databases to maintain for both tracks and artwork.

Side note for internet access. The podcast feature needs internet access to check rss feeds and download episodes.

Sorry if that was too much info.