How To-AI Coding on a Budget: BMAD Dev Agent, RooCode vs Copilot, and the True Cost of “Hello World”

Описание: In this episode of Tim Unscripted, we kick off the BMAD Dev Agent and get brutally honest about the real cost of AI-powered coding, from RooCode prepaid credits to GitHub Copilot subscriptions.
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What this video covers
Walking through the economics of AI coding tools: RooCode’s running dollar meter vs Copilot’s flat monthly fee and hidden “out of sight, out of mind” usage.
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How to find and interpret your actual Copilot spend inside GitHub, and what that means for your side projects or startup runway.
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Why time-to-value and total spend should drive your tool choices, especially if you’re a solopreneur or small team funding this out of pocket.
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Choosing models and tooling wisely
Touring the RooCode model catalog, including its own performance ratings and cost estimates to help you choose between Claude, OpenAI, and other LLMs.
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Understanding the trade-offs between general-purpose and code-focused models, and why “good enough” often beats “perfect on paper.”
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Exploring options for running models locally (VS Code + local LLMs) and when that might make sense versus staying fully cloud-based.
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Before you spend: product first, models second
A candid warning against burning 50–100 dollars on tools before you’ve validated that the problem is real and people actually want your solution.
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Practical prompts to use in customer conversations: “Is this a real problem for you?”, “Would you pay for a solution?”, and “What would ‘good’ look like?”.
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How better upfront discovery reduces misinvestment in both time and money once you start building with BMAD and AI agents.
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Running the BMAD Dev Agent (warts and all)
Taking the PM agent’s output and kicking off the Dev Agent to implement Epic 1 (platform and authentication) from user stories and acceptance criteria.
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Seeing the Dev Agent halt because stories are not truly “dev ready,” and how BMAD’s opinionated workflows surface that gap instead of plowing ahead blindly.
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Using that friction as a teaching moment about good user story structure, Gherkin-style acceptance criteria, and what “dev ready” really means for real teams.
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Who this is for
Developers, coaches, and product folks who want a grounded, numbers-aware view of AI-assisted development, not just model hype.
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Solopreneurs and small startups balancing tool spend, time-to-value, and the risk of building the wrong thing with very smart agents.
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Anyone curious how BMAD’s Dev Agent behaves in a real project, including the snags, course corrections, and lessons you can take back to your own team.
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If you want more transparent, warts-and-all experiments with BMAD, RooCode, Copilot, and AI-augmented development, hit subscribe and stick around for the next how-to episode of Tim Unscripted.