How I build with AI

I don’t get to play in the code at work as much as I’d like to these days. However, I still love programming so I always have a bunch of half started side projects lying around at home for tinkering. Mostly for fun but also to keep my eye in and prevent onset of shits easy syndrome

As with everyone, over the last year or so I’ve been using AI (mostly Claude) to see how I can recreate what I think “good engineering” looks like. I’m documenting my process here for my own reference.

Tools

Claude Code CLI with a few hand rolled skills and agents Backlog.md for task management ADRs for decision tracking Forgejo for git hosting and light CI Custom linters

Overview

I’ll use a new project as an example. I used my paved path repo to start a new project. This brings in scaffolding and a number of ADRs to set some project guidelines. I might create a super high level design doc with overall project intentions.

I use backlog to create things vertical slice tasks.

My agent flow is:

Look for PRs with review comments and addressed those

Then look for open, unassigned task to implant and open PRs against them

I then review PRs, and kick off another agent flow. During review I might suggest new tasks or ADRs to document decisions.