Talk twice as fast as you type, and create richer prompts with less effort. > TL;DR: Dictate your prompts instead of typing them to speak twice as fast and give more context. Common Mistake ❌ You write detailed prompts by hand, word by word, stayi...

When you have a lot of data to analyze, Ask for a tool, not a summary. > TL;DR: Ask the AI to write a program that analyzes your data instead of pasting all your data into the prompt. Common Mistake ❌ You have 50 complex JSON files. You paste the...

Your PR descriptions are training data for your future self, and for every agent after you. > TL;DR: Improve the AI tools, rules, skills, and workflows you use in every pull request so your team and future agents can learn, reproduce, and improve on...

Don't let your most important instructions drown in context noise > TL;DR: Bury critical rules and AI models ignore them. Use explicit markers to force compliance. Common Mistake ❌ You write a long skillhttps://coderlegion.com/10515/ai-coding-tip-...

Don't turn collaborators into permanent roommates > TL;DR: You should avoid storing stateless utility classes as instance variables initialized with new. Problems Hardcoded dependencies Testing difficulties High couplinghttps://coderlegion.com...

Context is precious. Don't waste it. > TL;DR: Split your AGENTS.md into layered files so your AI loads only the rules that matter for the code you touch. Common Mistake ❌ You put a single massive AGENTS.md , CLAUDE.md , GEMINI.md at your project r...

Refactorings are amazing to grow and improve our code > TL;DR: Let's start addressing our code smells I have been writing a series on Code Smells for a long time. https://coderlegion.com/10942/how-to-find-the-stinky-parts-of-your-code There are a...

Forget about data structures, DTOs, POJOs, and anemic objects. > TL;DR: Avoid external manipulation Problems Addressed Encapsulation Violation Anemichttps://coderlegion.com/7246/code-smell-01-anemic-models Models Related Code Smells https://c...

Structure your skills so the AI loads only the files it needs. Split complexity across modular files and use keywords to trigger conditional loading. > TL;DR: You reduce token usage when you trigger conditional loading instead of loading all files a...

A short thought can bring amazing ideas > TL;DR: There are some great quotes I've been collecting. I use them as inspiration or a motto for some articles. Here we go: > First make the change easy warning: this might be hard, then make the easy c...

Stop the memory rot > TL;DR: You can keep your AI sharp by forcing it to summarize and prune what it remembers a.k.a. compacting. Common Mistake ❌ You keep a single, long conversation open for hours. You feed the AI with every error log and ever...

If I see a Variable that doesn't change. I call that variable a constant > TL;DR: Be explicit on what mutates and what doesn't. Problems Addressed Mutabilityhttps://coderlegion.com/6742/the-evil-power-of-mutants Code Optimization Related Code S...

You own the code. Own and understand what it does. > TL;DR: Never ship AI-generated code you don't understand — ask until you do. Common Mistake ❌ You ask an AI agent to implement a feature. It returns 200 lines of code. You run the tests. They ...

Behavior is repeated across the system. But you are missing a concept > TL;DR: Put together what belongs together Problems Addressed Code Duplication Missing Abstraction Low Cohesion Related Code Smells https://maximilianocontieri.com/code-...

Summarize your architecture rules and give your AI a persistent memory > TL;DR: When you use the /init command, you create a context file that saves you from repeating instructions in every new session. Common Mistake ❌ You waste time copying and ...

Stop copying code chunks. Start letting AI agents work directly with your files. > TL;DR: Use terminal-based AI tools to give your assistant direct access to your local files and test suites. Common Mistake ❌ You copy code snippets into a web brow...

A series of practical advice on how to use AI to code > TL;DR: Master the balance between AI speed and code with professional craftsmanship. In this series, you will learn practical state-of-the-art advices to use AI to code. https://coderlegion.c...

Discouraged by Object-Oriented Programming, Many mixed languages support it. And developers abuse them. > TL;DR: Global functions bring a lot of coupling. Don't use them. Problems Tight Coupling Poor Readability Maintainability Testability H...

Learn guided by the domain > TL;DR: Use AI to understand requirements and build a shared mental model while you write the code. Common Mistake ❌ You jump directly to code generation with a vague, wishful prompt. The AI appears to understand your ...

Small changes yield unexpected problems. > TL;DR: If small changes have big impact, you need to decouple your system. Problems High Couplinghttps://coderlegion.com/6634/coupling-the-one-and-only-software-design-problem Low maintainability Side...