Key Principles
"Good development habits aren't optional — they're essential. Whether AI amplifies your capability or your chaos depends entirely on these habits."
Teams with rigorous development practices deploy 46x more frequently and move 440x faster from commit to deployment.
Three Modes of Vibe Coding
- Playground Mode: Claude writes 80-90% of code; developer gives minimal direction. Great for weekend hacks and POCs. Never use for production.
- Pair Programming Mode: For real projects under 5,000 lines. Uses CLAUDE.md and Anchor Comments as guardrails.
- Production/Monorepo Scale: Service/submodule-level separation. Clear API boundaries. "If boundaries aren't clear, Claude will 'improve' an API and break every client."
Essential Infrastructure
- CLAUDE.md: The codebase constitution — rules, forbidden patterns, architecture decisions, terminology.
- Anchor Comments:
AIDEV-NOTE:,AIDEV-TODO:,AIDEV-QUESTION:— navigation markers for both AI and humans. - Git Workflow: Use worktrees for AI experiments; cherry-pick successful commits. Tag AI commits with
[AI].
The Sacred Rule: Tests Are Human-Written
"Never, ever, ever let AI write test code."
Tests are executable specifications encoding business intent, edge cases, and domain understanding. AI-written tests only verify "code works as coded," not "code works as intended."
If AI touches a test file, the PR is rejected. No exceptions.
Token Economics and Context Management
Provide relevant, sufficient context rather than minimal context. "The cheapest token is the one that prevents three rounds of rework."
One task, one session — don't mix topics in a single Claude session.
What Claude Must Never Touch
- Test files
- Database migrations
- Security code
- API contracts (without versioning)
- Configuration/secrets
Leadership and Culture
- Senior developers shift from code writers to knowledge curators, boundary setters, and mentors for both AI and humans.
- Onboarding: Week 1 human-only PR, Week 2 supervised AI PR, Week 3 independent AI development.
- Transparency: All AI involvement tagged and disclosed.
Getting Started Today
- Create CLAUDE.md for your project
- Add 3 anchor comments to your most complex code
- Set clear boundaries and build one feature with AI
"The most important thing is to start. Don't wait for perfection."