All articles
22 articles, newest first. Browse by topic or subscribe to the RSS feed.
2026-09
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Prompt patterns for coding agents: plan mode, skills, saved prompts
Four prompt patterns from the Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI docs, with exact commands and file formats, plus a script that writes one saved prompt three ways.
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Coding agent security: prompt injection, MCP servers, and secrets
Prompt injection via tool results, MCP server trust, and secrets in config: what the Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI docs commit to, plus an auditor to run.
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When should you stop a coding agent? Budgets, loops, and the signs
The budget flags harnesses ship, the loop signatures that predict a failed run, what the research says about early stopping, and a transcript analyser.
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What one coding task costs: tokens, dollars, minutes, three ways
A method for costing an agent task across an interactive session, a headless run, and a cheaper model, with a price calculator and a dataset of published numbers.
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What is a coding-agent harness? The loop, tools, gate, and context
A coding-agent harness is the loop around the model. Here is what each part does, read from three real harnesses, with a 100-line runnable version you can inspect.
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Coding agent time-to-green: how do you measure ten small tasks fairly?
A method and a first dataset for timing a coding agent from prompt to first passing check: ten defined tasks, a runner script, and only honestly filled columns.
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Tests first with an agent: why must the test fail before it passes?
The red-green loop for agents: why a test that never failed proves nothing, hook-based gates, the lucky-pass numbers, and a script that enforces the order.
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SWE-bench explained: what a resolve rate measures and what it misses
How a SWE-bench score is produced, what Verified changed, and five papers on harness effects, lucky passes, contamination, and realistic prompts, with a dataset.
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SWE-agent and the agent-computer interface idea, paper and repo
What SWE-agent's ACI paper argued in 2024, what the repo's tools directory looks like at commit 3ea751c0, and why its own authors now recommend a 100-line successor.
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Spec first: how do you write a task a coding agent will finish?
A six-section spec template for coding agents, a worked CLI example, the published cost of underspecified prompts, and a linter to run before handing over.
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Reviewing coding-agent diffs: what does the checklist catch first?
Ten patterns behind most damage in agent diffs, why a second model makes a good first reviewer, and a scanner that flags them with line references.
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Refactoring with Claude Code: how do you keep behaviour unchanged?
Restructuring a legacy script with a coding agent: the same characterization tests run against old and new code, one refactor per turn, fixes in their own commit.
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OpenHands architecture explained, read at commit f7fb0c4b
How OpenHands is built at v1.16.0. The agent step loop, workspaces and sandboxes, the condenser, the confirmation gate, and what the README now calls Agent Canvas.
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Omnigent explained: the fastest-rising agent toolkit, read at v0.12.0
How I picked this month's fastest-rising agent repo with a GitHub search, what Omnigent's README says it is, its policy and sandbox model, and what is unverified.
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MCP server tutorial in Python: a stdio server from scratch
What the Model Context Protocol changes for coding agents, the JSON-RPC on the wire, and a dependency-free Python stdio server exercised with a scripted client.
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Claude Code and Codex headless: running a coding agent in CI safely
The flags for non-interactive Claude Code and Codex CLI runs, the caps that bound a job, the risks the docs name, and a CI wrapper exercised in dry-run mode.
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Git worktrees for coding agents: one checkout per session, why?
A worktree and branch per agent task, commits after every green, deny rules for destructive git, and a helper script exercised on a real repository.
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CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, and .cursor/rules: what goes in a context file
Where each coding agent looks for standing instructions, how the files load and merge, the size limits, and an audit script that finds every context file in a repo.
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Claude Code vs Codex vs Gemini CLI: what an agent may run
The permission models of Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, the OpenHands SDK, and Omnigent, read from their docs on 2026-09-05, with a working settings file.
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Claude Code from a one-paragraph spec: how do you build a CLI tool?
A method walkthrough for building a small CSV CLI with a coding agent: the spec, the prompts in order, the acceptance tests, and the checks that say it is done.
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Aider explained: repo maps, edit formats, and why it still matters
Aider read at commit 5dc9490b. How the tree-sitter repo map is ranked and budgeted, what each edit format does, and a stdlib repo-map script you can run.
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Claude Code on a legacy script: how do you add tests safely?
A step-by-step method for getting characterization tests onto an untested script with a coding agent: survey, seams, pin the actual behaviour, then talk about bugs.