AI-assisted development without losing control

AI can accelerate scaffolding. It can also generate confident nonsense. This is my current workflow for keeping control.

The rule

Never let the model own the architecture decision. Let it own the mechanical expansion of a decision you already made.

Workflow

1. Write a short plan in the repo.
2. Generate one vertical slice.
3. Review the diff like a PR from a junior engineer.
4. Lock patterns before asking for more files.

plan → one module → review → extract patterns → scale

Guardrails

• Prefer small, typed boundaries.
• Ban silent dependency installs in prompts.
• Keep secrets and deploy credentials out of agent context.

Demo content — useful as a baseline for later case studies.