Dev Rules

For humans working with AI on code. Non-negotiable basics.

  1. Open the correct folder. Not the one you think is right. The actual project root.
  2. Tell the AI your environment. Windows, WSL, Ubuntu, or whatever shell you’re in — they are not the same and the AI is not clairvoyant.
  3. Don’t change twelve things at once. If you changed twelve things and one broke it, you own that. Small, testable changes.
  4. Small commits. One logical change per commit. Your future self will thank you. So will the AI helping you debug it.
  5. Paste the exact error. Full message, full stack trace. “It says there’s an error” helps nobody.
  6. Say what you already tried. Prevents the AI from sending you in circles.
  7. Say whether it’s greenfield, maintenance, or refactor. These are different jobs. The agent will make different assumptions about risk tolerance, scope, and how much to touch.
  8. Say whether your local folder is the truth. If active work lives in a branch, or the local copy is behind remote, say so — otherwise the agent is working from a lie.
  9. Say whether you want a plan first or direct execution. Some people want a proposal to review. Others want the thing done. Neither is wrong, but silence gets you one at random.
  10. Say what the output needs to be. Local experiment, something you’ll commit, or something going live — those have very different standards of care.

Sources: ChatGPT (GPT-5.4), Claude Code