Resources / Working with AI
Give coding agents direction and feedback.
Fast code generation is useful. The harder job is keeping the product, architecture and evidence connected.
Design the loop around the code.
Outcome, boundaries, examples
One reviewable change
Evidence against the outcome
↶ Feed failures back into the next attempt. Stop when evidence meets the acceptance criteria.
Forward pressure
Make a useful next step clear before the agent acts. A scaffold, example or constraint reduces what it has to guess.
Back pressure
Test what happened. A failure must affect the next decision, otherwise it is just output in a log.
Too little direction produces plausible work on the wrong problem. Weak checks let mistakes accumulate. An endless review loop can waste as much time as no review at all.
Start where your workflow breaks.
Loop engineering
Classify your tools as forward or back pressure. Connect failures to the next action.
Build the feedback loop →The code goes in the wrong placesScaffolding
Make module ownership, dependency direction and contracts concrete before implementation.
Design a useful scaffold →The agent cannot find what mattersProgressive disclosure
Offer an index, then relevant summaries, then the source needed for a decision.
Build a context trail →Keep a person responsible for the outcome.
Separate discussion from permission
Exploring an idea should not trigger file changes or a deployment. State when the agent may research, edit, run checks or change an external system.
Keep changes reviewable
Agree the outcome and acceptance examples. Review the actual diff and behaviour. Use human domain expertise when the agent cannot validate an assumption.
Start with the smallest checks that catch likely defects. Add stronger checks for security, data changes or hard-to-reverse actions. Another model's agreement is not independent evidence that the product works.
Source and perspective
These guides draw on Beyond Coding's Lead Architect Reveals His Rules for Coding Agents. They adapt ideas from the conversation into practical examples, rather than treating one engineer's workflow as a universal rule.
- 12:11 · Scaffolding code before delegating
- 53:39 · Forward pressure and back pressure
- 56:04 · Progressive disclosure
- 59:51 · Let discussion remain discussion
The interview describes large delegated runs as well as the need for smaller reviewable changes. Here, the recommended scope is whatever a person can meaningfully inspect and verify. A model's confidence score is not a calibrated guarantee.