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Agentic Coding

Agentic Coding cookbook

Choose the conversation your work needs.

A field guide for planning, executing, agent-operated evidence, developer acceptance, and recovery with coding agents.

Start from the state you are in

A strong prompt names the engineering situation, the evidence required, and the point where the agent must stop.

These recipes are working conversations, not incantations. Adapt the context, inspect the result, and use the follow-up moves when the first answer is not good enough.

Understand and plan

Understand the system, choose a design, and expose weak assumptions before editing.

  1. 01Orient to a codebaseBuild a verified working map of an unfamiliar repository before asking the agent to change it.4 min read
  2. 02Plan a featureTurn a desired outcome into a codebase-grounded implementation strategy with an explicit approval boundary.4 min read
  3. 03Challenge a planAttack a proposed strategy before implementation makes false assumptions and weak boundaries expensive.4 min read
  4. 04Break down a planConvert an approved strategy into outcome-based milestones that remain coherent, testable, and reviewable.4 min read

Execute with control

Implement bounded outcomes, preserve scope, and recover cleanly when work wanders.

  1. 05Execute one milestoneAuthorize one complete implementation slice, then hand it to agent-operated evidence and developer judgment.4 min read
  2. 06Control scopeGive the agent enough context to understand the full path without authorizing every dependency it discovers.4 min read
  3. 07Synchronize documentationUpdate durable documentation from the implemented behavior without turning the task into a documentation rewrite.4 min read
  4. 08Recover from agent driftStop a wandering implementation, preserve useful work, and re-establish a trustworthy task contract.4 min read

Verify and correct

Investigate failures and demand evidence that matches the real production risks.

  1. 09Investigate a failing testEstablish intended behavior before changing production code, expectations, fixtures, or snapshots.4 min read
  2. 10Deepen a test strategyDesign tests around realistic defects and integration boundaries instead of chasing test count or coverage.5 min read
  3. 11Review a changeHave the agent assemble adversarial evidence for the developer's acceptance decision.4 min read

Govern the workflow

Improve the durable rules that shape every future agent conversation.

  1. 12Refine coding instructionsStrengthen an existing instruction system without erasing repository knowledge or granting silent authority.4 min read