Ask HN: Are agents _still_ writing most of your code?
3•etamponi•1h ago
At the beginning it was very cool to see them write a lot of code for me, in particular while I was ramping up on a new codebase. But I am seeing myself using agents less and less as I get more acquainted with the codebase. I might use them as a glorified copy n paste or to get a tool running. And they're indeed very useful to get the gist of a part of the code I don't fully grasp. But I am back to writing I'd say 90% of the code myself. Is this your experience as well?
Comments
cableshaft•58m ago
I'm using them more and more right now, but I only started really diving into agent-based A.I. coding the past couple of months.
It's especially nice after work, as I tend to be pretty low energy after work lately, and have a hard time sitting at a computer and coding even more.
With agent-based I can write up some medium-level detail specs (I'd do more if I need more, but it seems to be fine with what I give it most of the time), fire it off, and do something else away from the screen for a while, before checking in on it and reviewing it.
About the only thing I've been coding on my personal projects recently has been creating and checking in assets or putting in data.
Like I'm working on a card game and it was able to come up with something data-wise that was good enough for placeholders, but now it needs to be accurate, so I'm going in and changing it manually.
cableshaft•58m ago
It's especially nice after work, as I tend to be pretty low energy after work lately, and have a hard time sitting at a computer and coding even more.
With agent-based I can write up some medium-level detail specs (I'd do more if I need more, but it seems to be fine with what I give it most of the time), fire it off, and do something else away from the screen for a while, before checking in on it and reviewing it.
About the only thing I've been coding on my personal projects recently has been creating and checking in assets or putting in data.
Like I'm working on a card game and it was able to come up with something data-wise that was good enough for placeholders, but now it needs to be accurate, so I'm going in and changing it manually.