Each lesson helps you change one thing
Read in order or choose the problem you face. Follow the sources to distinguish observed results from recommendations and unresolved limits.
Stop repeat work
Lessons 01–03You corrected the same thing three times this week. These three lessons make it the last time.
- Lesson 1: You turn repeated mistakes into reliable checksCatch a repeated mistake with a check that rejects it.
- Lesson 2: You diagnose failed checks without copying logsGive the agent access to the failed check and its logs.
- Lesson 3: You test the result users actually needVerify the real result, not just a successful command.
Give agents what they need
Lessons 04–06Most agent failures are something you already know and never wrote down. Give it a preview, a tool, and the instruction you keep repeating.
- Lesson 4: You give agents a working previewMake the running change reachable from the agent’s environment.
- Lesson 5: You make missing operations usable by agentsBridge a real capability gap with the smallest useful interface.
- Lesson 6: You write instructions that fix observed confusionPut decisions where the next task can use them.
Keep work understandable and recoverable
Lessons 07–10A codebase only you can navigate will trip every agent and every new hire. These four lessons keep it readable and resumable.
- Lesson 7: You keep shared contracts consistent across layersKeep the language, types and runtime boundary in agreement.
- Lesson 8: You navigate unfamiliar code without guessingMake the codebase understandable when you return to it.
- Lesson 9: You resume work without repeating completed stepsReuse finished work and resume only the missing stage.
- Lesson 10: You remove obstacles for the next contributorChoose a recurring obstacle worth removing for future work.