Work with AI in small, safe steps
🏠The everyday picture
Building a wall one row of bricks at a time, checking each row with a spirit level. If one row is crooked, you fix one row, not knock down the whole wall.
📘What it really is
Every change follows the same loop:
- Start clean:
git statusshows nothing uncommitted; you're on an up-to-datemain. - Branch:
git switch -c add-tutor-profile. - Ask for one thing, clearly: what to build, where it fits in the plan, and what "done" looks like.
- Ask for a plan before code: "Tell me which files you'll change and why. Don't write code yet." Correct the plan if needed.
- Let it build, then run it and check it does what you asked.
- Ask for a test that proves it works.
- Commit with a clear message, push, and open a pull request.
- Review (Lesson 5), then merge.
📝A worked example
A good request:
Read PLAN.md and the rules. Next must-have: tutors can create a profile
with name, subjects, area and fee. Only logged-in tutors can create or edit
their own profile. First, list the files you'll change and why. No code yet.
A poor request: "Make the tutor part of the app." It's too big, unclear about "done", and invites guessing.
💡What it means for your idea
Small steps feel slower, but they're faster overall: each step is easy to check, easy to undo, and easy for the AI to get right. Big requests produce big, tangled changes that nobody, human or AI, can fully check.
✍️Practise: one complete loop
Take the smallest must-have from your plan. Do the whole loop once: branch, ask for a plan, build, run, test, commit, pull request, merge.
🧭Pick this when...
For every change, however small it seems. The loop becomes quick with practice.
✅Quick check
The AI's plan says it will change 25 files to add a profile form. What do you do?
Show the answer
Ask why so many, and to split it into smaller steps. A simple form shouldn't touch most of the project.
Halfway through, the result is a mess. You started on a fresh branch from a clean main. What now?
Show the answer
Switch back to main and delete the branch, or git restore . on the branch. Then ask again, in a smaller step.
📚 Next in the Builder Path: Lesson 5, Check the AI's work.