Module 30: Programming Project
Building in small steps, with AI
🏠The everyday picture
A mason lays a course of bricks, checks it's level, then lays the next. Checking after ten courses means knocking down ten courses.
📘What it really is
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Build one requirement at a time, as a vertical slice: types, logic, tests, and the way to use it. Then commit.
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With AI, the Builder Path habits (Lessons 4 and 5) apply fully, now that you can read the code:
- ask for one requirement, naming the files and types to use;
- read every line of the change; ask about anything you don't understand;
- run
npm run checkandnpm test; - try it yourself, including wrong input;
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commit with the requirement number: "Add expense totals by category (R6)".
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You must be able to explain and change your own code. That's the pass requirement for this level. If AI wrote a part, rewrite or modify it yourself until you could rebuild it without help.
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Keep a log of decisions in your README: "Stored dates as ISO text because…". It's how you remember why, months later.
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If a change goes wrong,
git restoreor revert (Module 9). Small commits make that painless.
🖱️Try it
Implement three requirements, one at a time, each as its own commit with tests. For at least one, use AI, then make one meaningful change to its code by hand (for example, a better error message or an extra check) and explain the change in the commit message.
✅Quick check
Why build one requirement at a time instead of everything at once?
Show the answer
Each small step is easy to check and test, and if something breaks, you know which change caused it.
What's the pass rule for this level about AI-written code?
Show the answer
You must be able to explain and change every part of your project yourself.