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If AI coding is lowering your code quality, you're not managing quality right

129 points · 169 comments · bucket2015

  1. fishfasell · · focus · HN ↗
    I think there's a lot of setup and context required for an AI agent to consistently write good code. Once the agent has these guard rails in place I usually get great quality- far better than what I would write in most cases.

    I think where things get dicey is being able to write in any language. I write and review code in many languages and frameworks I'm not fluent in, so it's hard for me to distinguish between working code and great code. I can spot when the fundamental logic is wrong, but when it comes to "best fit" choices I'm clueless.

    1. nicce · · focus · HN ↗
      I would say that it is like gardening. If you let them go havoc from the start, the weed will take over. If you keep focusing on removing the weed and enforce specific standards and practices over the code base and it keeps growing, over time LLMs start to suddenly follow that and they don't make so much slop anymore. At least that is my experience. But I force specific audit agent after every added feature which says them to force compliance with AGENTS.md and check the consistency with the code base.
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