Introduction

Clean code is less about clever tricks and more about the next person who reads it. AI assistance changes the economics of that: the boring parts get cheaper, so the thinking parts deserve more of your attention.

Name Things Before You Generate Them

The quality of generated code tracks the quality of your naming. If a function name is vague, the body will be too. Write the signature first, then let the assistant fill it in.

Keep The Review Bar Where It Was

Generated code passing tests is not the same as generated code being correct. Read every diff with the same scepticism you would apply to a new teammate’s first pull request.

Refactor In Small, Verifiable Steps

Ask for one transformation at a time — extract this function, remove this duplication — and run the suite between each. Large rewrites are where subtle regressions hide.

Small steps also keep your git history readable, which matters more than it sounds.

Let The Assistant Write The Tests You Skip

The tests nobody writes are the tedious edge cases. That is exactly the work worth delegating, and it is easy to verify because failing tests are self-announcing.