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AI Coding Principles

Best practice structures and workflows to maximize time in flow.

Flow is the ultimate goal.

State of Play​

Software development is now about guiding the intentions of intelligent systems through prompts.

  • Prompt-Centric Development: Prompts are now central to programming, enabling multi-step workflows and dynamic problem-solving.
  • High-Grade Compute: Investing in advanced AI models yields significant productivity improvements compared to cost-saving approaches using lower-grade models.
  • Resistance to Change: Those unwilling to adapt will fall far behind engineers that embrace generative AI's capabilities.

Best Practices​

Balance prompt detail, with just enough context and the right LLM for the task at hand.

  1. Keep things simple, particularly when starting out
  2. Choose the right tools to constrain agent behavior
  3. Aim to only use prompts over writing code
  4. Plan out specs with prompts
  5. Factor out a library of reusable prompts

Vibe Coding Definition

Context is King​

Manage context to achieve results. Clarity of intentions is even more important with AI tools to communicate context, processes and desired outcomes to ensure solutions have a clean architecture and avoid wasting compute time and tokens.

Ideas​

  • Would Process and Instrument Diagram language be the best way to communicate software architecture intentions with AI?
  • How do best practices from principled ai coding compare to issues defined by ThePrimeagen