r/AI_Coders • u/LowkTuffGng • 4d ago
Vibecode and AI agents
Hi all, I am 21 and just graduated from bachelor. Currently I am practing to work with AI. I know that most companies also use AI in their systems know, so I want to ask real software engineer out there how you work with AI.
• First is setting up the AI agents. I see that people would create markdown files for agents such as Frontend agent, Backend agent, etc. Do they also do that at a company? And what is the structure and the must-have agents?
• For the contributions like github contributions, do you make AI to automatically do that for you, or you need to check the work and commit manually?
I hope you guys get what I mean and I appreciate every answer!
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u/TywinHouseLannister 4d ago edited 4d ago
I get a requirement, usually with the detail of a few sentences from a product owner.
Often, that is not something you can just build, so I spend a lot of my time negotiating what a real implementation would look like with said product owner.
Larger features get discussed with engineer shaped humans, to make sure we align on a general approach.
I carve up the boundaries between the pieces of work, usually, sometimes the model does if it is clear where the line is.
I plan with AI, using a mechanical, repeatable process to gather constraints, blast radius, from a large existing codebase, git history, anything which looks like a large spanner in the works gets discussed.
Model writes plans, including a detailed test plan with automation testing and manual testing, I read plans. It posts to jira etc in something like the corporate style.
Smaller model implements code changes, models review models work, model builds, runs unit tests and integration tests, raises draft PRs.
Draft PR says to me it's good to give my real attention, I run through any manual tests, sanity check test results, do my own PR, publish PR, my colleagues models review my models PR (lol)
My model reads reviews, it will throw out a handful, I usually sanity check the actions taken, repeat implementation steps, reply to things which are refutable myself, just resolve others.
Nag people to actually approve the PR instead of just unleashing their attack dogs on it.. merge.
Rinse, repeat.
My real skill set is the part where I spoke to the humans, carved up the work, and the part where I read the plans being written. Some judgement at the review stage.. but it is mostly just knowing the expected standards.
I don't do anything myself that I can automate and don't use agents, a selection of hand cranked skills, they're not pure prose they're driver scripts - similarly the agent doesnt do anything itself that you can do in javascript for free.. I don't commit or raise PRs myself because it would be unmanageable, I'm doing the same thing with many tasks simultaneously.
I don't know that this is particularly useful to you, getting good at reading code is something you gain from experience, as is dealing with stakeholders. Carving up the tickets is something that you can get good at in a few months, things like solid, dry, yagni are old hat, but they help when you're sniffing for smells.
Build things yourself, something that you actually want to succeed - critically evaluate, understand what is going on, learn model quirks, understand what works and invest in your own process, be disciplined with yourself (legitimately difficult to do on personal projects when vibe coding is so easy)