Commits and Conflicts

Paul’s Hint of the Week · #5

Build a Safety Net Before the AI Touches Anything

· 3 min read

Inspired by Episode 10: Centered on Myself

Checkpoints, a list of what must keep working, and a one-command undo. Make every AI change easy to check and cheap to throw away.

What’s inside

  1. The goal
  2. Before you start
  3. Step by step
  4. Step 1: Make a checkpoint
  5. Step 2: Write down what must keep working
  6. Step 3: Capture a baseline
  7. Step 4: Give the assistant the goal and the invariants
  8. Step 5: Check the invariants, then the diff
  9. Step 6: Keep or throw away, in one command
  10. Prompts to steal
  11. Checklist
  12. Common mistakes

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