TIPS & TRICKS
Work faster with AI, without losing the plot
Short posts from building AlgoRung with coding agents every day: what to put in a task, when to plan first, how to keep the agent honest, and the habits that carry over to interviews.
- Keep the Context Small: Faster, Sharper Agents A coding agent works best when its context holds only what the task needs. Use a lean project file, point at the right files, and keep one task per session.
- Plan Before You Build: Plan Mode, Then Execute For any change bigger than a quick fix, have the coding agent read and plan first, review the plan, then let it build. Here is how, and when to skip it.
- How to Write a Task a Coding Agent Can Finish Brief a coding agent like a capable new teammate. State the goal, give the context it cannot discover, and say how you will check the result, with examples.
- Let the Agent Run the Tests, Then Check These An agent that can run tests, builds and linters fixes its own mistakes before you see them. How to set up that loop, and the things you still need to check.
- Agent Skills for Development: When to Make One A skill is a packaged set of instructions an agent loads when a task calls for it. What goes in one, when it is worth making, and a worked example.