1. Let AI write the first attempt
- think a little, and get the ball rolling
- be specific about what you want — vague prompts get vague code
- don’t overthink it — ready, fire, aim
2. When chat gets tedious, take the wheel
- if you’re copy-pasting code blocks for the fifth time, stop
- pull the branch, commit directly
3. You own the merge, period
- AI is your intern, not your boss
- you’re responsible for what ships — act like it
4. Tag team like pros
- AI writes scaffolding, you handle the gnarly bits
- AI refactors, you write integration tests
- back and forth
5. Speed > perfection (on iteration zero)
- get something working first
- it’s easier to reason about a solution with concrete code
- AI excels at “make it work”, you excel at “make it right”
6. Leverage async workflows
- automate bug reports, and error + other alerts to generate PRs
- if the AI has to wait for you to initiate, or your laptop must stay open for work to continue, you’re a bottleneck
7. Commit early, commit often — both of you
- small commits from AI, small commits from you
- git history should tell a story, not be a novel
8. Testing is still your job, not optional
- it’s easier than ever to have test suites—AI can draft tests well
- but you need to decide what actually needs testing, and why
- with this principle alone, your software quality can go way up… without costing you much, if any, time
9. Review everything like it came from a junior dev
- because it did
- AI writes confident code that might be confidently wrong
10. The human always has the last word
- when in doubt, your judgment wins
- AI suggests, you decide
11. Domain knowledge is your unfair advantage
- AI knows syntax and patterns, but you know why the business logic exists and what could go wrong in production
- that context gap is where human judgment becomes irreplaceable
Read the full manifesto and contribute at github.com/tembo/aifsd