coding agent tips

this is my evidence backed guide to working with coding agents, whether you are a student having an existential crisis, a startup founder working with real money for yourself and other people, or an engineer at one of the biggest technology companies in the world. the guidance is organized around the scale and consequences of the work.

read the handbook or go directly to a principal guide:

• codex
• claude code
• grok
• start here
• choosing an agent setup
• how coding agents got here
• where this comes from

what this helps you decide

the handbook separates the surface where you steer work, the harness that runs the agent loop, the model that supplies inference, and the orchestration used for parallel work. it also covers repository instructions, permissions, review, evidence, hardware, and the operating costs that appear after the first demo.

evidence principle

• tested: reproduced in a named environment and version, with the tester and limits stated
• official source: confirmed in current primary documentation or source code
• analysis: a judgment derived from stated evidence
• open question: current evidence is missing or incomplete

citations sit beside the claims they support. tested observations name their limits, while source based claims stay distinct from personal analysis.

local verification

bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run verify

built and maintained by ani potts. corrections with primary sources or reproducible field evidence are welcome.

MIT