Hi HN,

I built my first project using an LLM in mid-2024. I've been excited ever since. But of course, at some point it all turns into a mess.

You see, software is an intricate interwoven collection of tiny details. Good software gets many details right; and does not regress as it gains functionality.

My bootstrapped startup, ApprovIQ (https://approviq.com) is trying to break into a mature market with multiple fully featured competitors. I need to get the details right: MVP quality won't sell. So I opted for Test-Driven Development, the classic red/green/refactor. Writing tests that fail - then making them pass - forces you to document in your tests every decision that went into the code. This makes it a universal way to construct software. With TDD, you don't need to hold context in your head about how things should work. Your software can work as intricate as you like and still be resilient to regression. Bug in a third-party dependency? Get a failing test, make it pass. Anyone who undoes your fix will see the test fail.

At the same time as doing TDD with Claude Code, I also discovered that agents obey all instructions put in front of them! I started to add super-advanced linting: architectural guideline enforcement, scripts that walk the codebase's AST and enforce my architecture, I even added one that enforces only our brand colors in our codebase. That one is great because it prevents agents from picking ugly "AI generic" colors in frontends. Because the check blocks commits with ugly colors, our product looks way less like an AI built it - without human involvement.

In time I was no longer in the details of what the agent was building and was mostly supervising the TDD process while it implemented our product. Once that got tedious, I automated that into a state machine too.

All the ideas that now allow me build at high quality are in this repo.

This isn't your weekend vibe project. I've spent months refining the framework. There are rough edges but it's better out and rough than in hiding until perfect.

Hopefully some ideas here help you or your agent. I recommend cloning it and letting your agent have a look! And if you want to contribute please to - and if you want to get in touch, contact details in my profile.

Thanks for looking.

Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to record demo videos without editing

Judge says he will order Greenpeace to pay $345M in oil pipeline case

Model Collapse Ends AI Hype

Research suggests mating direction bias between Neanderthals and humans

Seeing Is Not Believing: Benchmarking AI Image Detectors

Pakistan bombs targets in Afghan cities, minister calls it 'open war'

How Stupid Would It Be to Put Data Centers in Space?

Upload 23andMe,myHeritage, Myancestry, get 1,200 GRS score and a longevity prot

Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

Reduce Claude Token Usage by 50%

Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)

How do you evaluate a person's ability to use AI?

Secure-Massively-Multiplayer-Snake

Claude-search – grep, resume your Claude Code session history from the CLI

Under Secretary of Defense Emil Michael Response to Dario Amodei

Green Eggs and HAM (Hierarchical Agent Memory)

Energym: Move the World

Tonka beans are illegal in the US

OpenClaw Hype: Analysis of Chatter from the Dark Web (BleepingComputer)

Any Website Can Take Full Control of Your OpenClaw Agent (Oasis)

Show HN: Cecil – open-source memory and identity protocol for AI

New AirSnitch attack breaks Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises

Show HN: HeadshotAI – Professional AI headshots in 30 seconds for £4.99

China piles pressure on Japan after Takaichi Sanae's triumph

The Cron King

Can LLMs reason about math? The Subtraction Trick Test

Show HN: Toggl lock‑screen widget for real‑time time tracking

How Anthropic Teams use Claude Code [pdf]

User Interview #3

Show HN: CodeLeash: framework for quality agent development, NOT an orchestrator

Show HN: Resume Rescue AI – Land your next tech role in half the time