Navigating the World of AI-Assisted Coding: Five Essential Guidelines

After two transformative years of coding with AI assistance, I’ve discovered some crucial strategies that can prevent your coding journey from spiraling into chaos. If you’re looking to streamline your development process and avoid the pitfalls of infinite debugging loops, these five rules will guide you toward a more efficient and productive coding experience.

1. Embrace the “Three Strikes” Rule

When it comes to AI tools, persistence can sometimes be counterproductive. If your AI solution fails to rectify an issue after three attempts, it’s time to pivot. I made the mistake of allowing my codebase to balloon from a manageable 2,000 lines to a staggering 18,000 while attempting to fix a dropdown menu issue. By the end, my app was ensconced in a web of unnecessary try-catch blocks.

Instead, try this:

• Take a screenshot of the problematic UI.
• Begin a new chat session with the AI.
• Clearly articulate what you want to achieve, rather than detailing the existing problems.
• Ask the AI to reconstruct the component from the ground up.

2. Be Wary of Context Windows

An important but often overlooked factor is that AI can lose track of context after several exchanges. I once managed to confuse my AI assistant so much that it thought I was building a recipe blog instead of an AI voice platform, all due to prolonged debugging discussions.

To maintain clarity, I implement the following:

• Save functional code separately after every 8-10 exchanges.
• Open a fresh session with the AI.
• Paste only the relevant component causing issues.
• Include a brief description of the application’s purpose.

This method has significantly reduced my debugging time by approximately 70%.

3. Simplify Your Explanation

The “Explain Like I’m Five” rule becomes instrumental when diagnosing problems. If you find yourself unable to summarize the issue succinctly, it’s a sign that you may be overcomplicating things. I once spent hours attempting to articulate a complex set of problems only to realize I needed to simplify my explanation.

Now, I stick to straightforward statements like:

• “The button isn’t saving data.”
• “The page crashes on refresh.”
• “Image uploads yield undefined results.”

Simple language leads to clearer understanding and quicker resolutions.

4. Leverage Version Control Diligently

Version control isn’t just a safety net; it’s a necessity. Commit your changes to