Petit test
Guess first, no penalty. You ask a coding agent to "add team accounts". It starts editing 14 files at once. What should you have asked for first?
A coding agent (an AI tool that edits files and runs commands for you) will start building the moment you ask. If its idea of the job is wrong, every file it touches carries that mistake.
Ask for a plan first. A good plan has three parts:
- Steps in order, each small enough to review in one sitting.
- The files each step changes, so you can spot scope creep early.
- Assumptions and open questions, the places it guessed.
Review the plan like a design, not like code. Cut steps you don't need, correct wrong assumptions, and answer the open questions.
Then build one step at a time. Run the tests and commit after each, so a bad step is one small revert.