Don't overthink it. Use whatever bootstrapping tools your project framework comes with (rails app? use `rails new`)

> How do you keep stuff out of the context window that you don't want in it?

Don't overthink it. Just use one chat per general topic. New topic -> new chat. Save anything relevant to the project that the agent doesn't pick up in new chats in AGENTS.md

> How do you "layer" your work so it's much more about the context and integrity of the structure

Save project specific needs/requirements in AGENTS.md or docs/ or skills or whatever and tinker until it works

> Do you switch models

Nowadays just for code review. Recently gpt5.5 has felt very good for general dev

> What other tooling do you have alongside basic agents/environments?

Neovim for code browsing (don't write much code anymore but the code editor is still useful for reading code) and various plugins/tools i've built up over the years

Honestly, there's no blanket solution. The best engineers I've worked with all have different tools custom to their workflows

> know I'm hitting a ceiling. My workflow is naive and nonpro, a lot of tinkering and bashing my way through code generation, context drift, manual fixes, etc.

Hit a ceiling? Fix it. Typically it's

- do work

- notice something annoying about your workflow

- fix it systemically - research different solutions - sometimes it's writing a small script (agents are great for this), sometimes it's finding a new tool, sometimes it's overhauling your entire system, it just depends

- do work

repeat...

there's really no one stop solution for a perfect workflow