loveyourclanker.orgbeta

I Code, You Check

A High touch, high skill, professional approach for the most critical code. Complete control. You get to do the interesting bits. Not very fast.

The flow

Software Engineer
Agent
01
The software engineer enters 'Plan Mode' and starts by prompting a system increment. The engineer may tack a nudge onto the end of it — the last one is my favourite.

Prompts for step 01

I want to integrate voice assistance into the app

The website needs a new page for media reports

I need to parallelise processing of the input queue, it's a bottleneck and we have residual available compute

ask me questions if you are unsure

Consider carefully, think critically, make a plan

02
The Agent evaluates the request app type, and prompts for Gaps.

Prompt for step 02

The table affected by the processing is configured for page level locking, the bottleneck may just move the the database, should we fix that?

03
The software engineer answers questions.
04
The agent builds the plan without changing any code or config.
05
The Software Engineer reviews the plan and prompts changes or corrections.
06
The agent updates the plan and requests the go ahead to start coding.
Note that the Engineer now does the Execution
07
The Software Engineer begins coding the changes in increments
08
At the end of each increment, usually when the code compiles, the Software Engineer prompts the Agent to check the work.

Prompt for step 08

I have completed the first part of the plan, check my work for errors, gaps, ommissions

09
The agent checks the code, it may use git tools to check the diff.
10
the Agent lists out a set of errors, gaps and omissions
11
The Engineer runs through the list and makes any corrections that they agree with.
The Engineer may choose to ignore issues found by the agent if they are irrelevant or unimportant
12
Steps 7 through 11 are repeated until the Engineer thinks the work is done
13
The interaction ends.

notes

  • the Agent stays in 'Plan' mode the whole time.
  • If you get stuck you can prompt "what were you thinking about for this change?", look at the code and use it to get unstuck.
  • The Agent is usually super good at finding gaps to the point it can surface minor things that are not important. Use your judgement to ignore what isn't necessary.

How it Stacks Up

Speed

Medium

You are still hand coding. Equivalent speed to 'Pair coding' approach from extreme programming.

Control

Highest

You are in complete control.

Quality

Highest

Basically your best skills + an omnipresent reviewer who has read every line of code on github.

Safety

Highest

Brainrot

Negative

You are learning, you are problem solving, you are getting smarter than the agent.

Token use

Medium

Still paying for planning and checking but not all the generation tokens.

Best for

  • Production Code that has never existed before.
  • Key IP for your business
  • Technology that is your 'Moat'

Tools

Any modern harness + frontier modelClaude CodeCursorAntigravity