I spent much of the last several months using LLM agents to create software. I've written two blog posts about my experience; this is the second post that includes all the things I've learned along the way to get better results, or at least waste less money.

This lines up with my own experience of learning how to succeed with LLMs. What really makes them work isn't so different from what leads to success in any setting: being careful up front, measuring twice and cutting once.

If I paid for my API usage directly instead of the plan it'd be like a second mortgage.