06 Stages
Method / AI
A multiplier, not an authority.
AI is part of how I engineer, from reading an unfamiliar repository to reviewing a release. The tools change often. The method changes much less: AI widens what I can investigate and build, and every conclusion still has to survive verification.
How I work AI in engineering
Stage by stage: what AI does, what stays with me, and how the result is checked.
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Repository understanding
AIMap an unfamiliar codebase: entry points, data flow, where a behaviour is decided, which tests already cover it.
Stays with meDecide which of those explanations to trust, and read the code that matters myself.
CheckEvery claim about the code is traced to a file and line before it informs a decision.
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Planning
AIDraft approaches, list affected surfaces, and surface questions I have not asked yet.
Stays with meScope, sequencing, and what deliberately stays out of the change.
CheckThe plan names its assumptions, so each can be confirmed or broken early.
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Investigation & debugging
AIGenerate hypotheses, narrow reproductions, and read logs and traces faster than I can alone.
Stays with meChoose which hypothesis to test, and when the evidence is sufficient.
CheckA cause is accepted only when a reproduction fails before the change and passes after it.
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Implementation
AIWrite and refactor code within the constraints I set, including repetitive and mechanical work.
Stays with meArchitecture, interfaces, and anything irreversible.
CheckI read every change as if a colleague wrote it: diff review, not trust.
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Test design & validation
AIPropose cases, especially the unpleasant ones: missing data, permissions, concurrency, rollback.
Stays with meWhether the tests exercise the real path or merely the mock.
CheckWhere it matters, tests run against real dependencies, more than once, and are seen failing before the fix.
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Review & release
AIA second reader for diffs, migrations, and release notes; a checklist that does not get tired.
Stays with meAccountability for what ships, and for what happens after.
CheckImplementation success and release success are separate questions, checked separately.
Delivered capability AI in products
Judged by the system, not the model.
When AI is part of a product, the engineering questions widen: model behaviour, evaluation, latency, cost, failure modes, and what happens when the model is wrong.
Product AI work appears here once it can be documented publicly with evidence, the same standard as every other record.
Evidence first What the method protects
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Understand the existing system before changing it.
Find where the behaviour is actually decided, then change it there.
Seen in GROWIPeaceful Sevastopol
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The right small change can move the whole system.
Leverage comes from placement, not from the size of the diff.
Seen in Peaceful Sevastopol
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Good engineering includes knowing what not to change.
Scope is a decision. What stays untouched is part of the design.
Seen in Peaceful Sevastopol
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A fix is only correct if the rest of the system agrees.
Clients, translations, and security properties depend on behaviour a single route cannot see.
Seen in GROWI
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Prefer evidence over confidence.
Tests that exercise the real path, run more than once, beat an argument that the change is right.
Seen in GROWI
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Keep changes small enough to review honestly.
Split the work so each review can be about the behaviour, not the size of the diff.
Seen in GROWI
The engineering stories show the method in practice, including where review changed the answer.
Engineering stories