I do not write much code by hand anymore. I direct an AI coding agent — I tell it what to build, and it builds. People call this “agentic coding,” and almost nothing I knew about programming prepared me for how different it is.

The hard part isn’t the AI. It’s learning how to direct it: what rules to give it, what to make it double-check, when to make it stop and ask. Over time I built up a rulebook — and watching that rulebook change is the most honest record I have of what actually works.

This blog is that record. One lesson per post: the problem, what broke, the rule I added, and what changed. No theory I haven’t lived.