Ask HN: How to improve AI coding/debugging in large codebases
3•saha26•1mo ago
I mostly use Github Copilot(paid by the company). Are there any particular techniques that are helpful in debugging large codebases?
So far I just have a MD file, with some general details about our codebase, and then I just ask it to search for a particular function/file and start from there.
Are there other ideas that are particularly helpful for larger codebases, especially since this area seems to be changing rapidly?
Comments
kkarpkkarp•1mo ago
try cursor maybe. While I still try to provide as big as possible starting prompt when I try to introduce a new feature, I found for debugging it just works perfect. I almost never need to provide a big context.
Sometimes I get the whole wordpress site with ~20 plugins installed from customer, so it is huge codebase. But if customer tells me "i need to fix this button not sending this or that" that all what I copy to cursor and I have the fix on the first try almost every time.
I don't need to inform AI about anything more. Cursor figures it out itself: that it is wordpress, which plugins it has, which plugin is responsible for that button and how to fix it (mostly as filter/action to be added to the theme, sometimes creates custom tiny plugin)
The is also debug mode in cursor but I don't need it in that case. It is helpful when you are working on a new feature but at some point cursor stucks and can't produce what you ask. Then I switch to debug mode and wait when it fix it.
kkarpkkarp•1mo ago
Sometimes I get the whole wordpress site with ~20 plugins installed from customer, so it is huge codebase. But if customer tells me "i need to fix this button not sending this or that" that all what I copy to cursor and I have the fix on the first try almost every time.
I don't need to inform AI about anything more. Cursor figures it out itself: that it is wordpress, which plugins it has, which plugin is responsible for that button and how to fix it (mostly as filter/action to be added to the theme, sometimes creates custom tiny plugin)
The is also debug mode in cursor but I don't need it in that case. It is helpful when you are working on a new feature but at some point cursor stucks and can't produce what you ask. Then I switch to debug mode and wait when it fix it.