As a dev myself, I see a couple of modes of operation: - push to talk - long form conversation - short form conversation

In both conversational approaches the AI can respond with simple acknowledgements. When prompted by the user the AI could go into longer discussions and explanations.

It might be nice for the AI to quickly confirm it hears me and for it to give me subtle queues that it’s listening: backchannels: “yeah”, and non-verbal: “mhmm”. So I can imagine having a developer assistant that feels more like working with another dev than working with a computer.

That being said, there is room for all modes, all at the same time, and at different times shifting between them. A lot of time I just don’t want to talk at all.