2. Expect to iterate
As I mentioned before, the more explicit and persistent your instructions are, the more likely you’ll get something resembling your intentions. That said, it’s unlikely you’ll get exactly what you want on the first, second, third, or even fourth try—not even for any single aspect of your program, let alone the whole thing. Mind reading, let alone accurately, is still quite a way off. (Thankfully.)
A certain amount of back-and-forth to get to what you want seems inevitable, especially if you are re-implementing a project in a different language. The benefit is you’re forced to confront each set of changes as you go along, and make sure they work. The downside is the process can be exhausting, and not in the same way making iterative changes on your own would be. When you make your own changes, it’s you versus the computer. When the agent is making changes for you, it’s you versus the agent versus the computer. The determinism of the computer by itself is replaced by the indeterminism of the agent.
3. Take full responsibility for the results
My final takeaway is to be prepared to take responsibility for every generated line of code in the project. You cannot decide that just because the code runs, it’s okay. In my case, Claude may have been the agent that generated the code, but I was there saying yes to it and signing off on decisions at every step. As the developer, you are still responsible—and not just for making sure everything works. It matters how well the results utilize the target language’s metaphors, ecosystem, and idioms.
