AI Agents on Work You Can Explain

Write a Bounded Task for an AI Coding Agent

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 -0500

A useful AI coding-agent task names the outcome, relevant starting context, exact targets, constraints, authority, success criteria, and evidence to report. It also states what should remain unchanged and what ambiguity should stop the work.

The task does not need to prescribe every keystroke. It needs a boundary strong enough for you to decide whether the result belongs.

Why vague requests expand risk

Consider this request:

Clean up this project and improve the README.

The agent must infer what “clean up” means. It might reformat code, update dependencies, delete files, rewrite documentation, change repository settings, or make a commit. Even a technically competent result may solve a different problem than the one the student intended.

Choose an AI Agent by Where the Work Runs

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0500

An AI agent is a software system that uses a model, instructions, context, and possibly tools to pursue a bounded task. Choose one by where the work and execution need to live. A local or host-attached agent can reach selected files and tools on your computer. A managed cloud agent can continue without your computer but requires permitted material to be available in its cloud environment or connected services. A messaging application may control either kind, so it does not tell you where the work runs.

From Autocomplete to Agents: How AI Coding Methods Are Evolving

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0500

AI coding methods are moving from local suggestions toward repository-aware, tool-using, and delegated work. The important change is not that typing code disappears. It is that a person can ask a system to take more actions across a larger part of the software process.

As the action surface grows, the durable human work becomes more explicit:

define the behavior;
select the context;
state permissions and boundaries;
create acceptance checks;
inspect actions and diffs;
integrate the result; and
explain why the final software should be trusted.

Use the smallest assistance level that fits the task. More autonomy is useful only when its saved effort exceeds the cost of context, supervision, review, and recovery.

Use Notion as a Reusable, AI-Connected Workspace

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Use Notion as a reusable, AI-connected workspace only after you separate three capabilities:

A published page can become a template that another user duplicates.
An external AI tool can connect through Notion’s hosted MCP server.
Notion Agent can work inside the workspace with the user’s permissions.

These capabilities do not share one permission or maintenance model. Build the manual workspace first, test each capability separately with synthetic data, review every AI change, and export the important content.

Use Git Worktrees for Parallel AI Agents

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Use Git worktrees for parallel AI agents only when the tasks can be separated clearly. Create one branch and linked working directory per task, assign exclusive files or responsibilities, inspect each result independently, and integrate one commit at a time.

Worktrees reduce interference between working directories. They do not make overlapping designs, stale assumptions, or conflicting recommendations safe.

Understand what a worktree isolates

The official git worktree documentation states that one repository can support multiple working trees and have more than one branch checked out at a time.

Use `AGENTS.md` to Teach an AI About a Repository

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Use AGENTS.md for durable guidance that should apply across many agent tasks in a repository. Put project conventions, reliable setup and verification commands, scope boundaries, and review expectations there. Keep the current objective, temporary context, and one-time preferences in the task prompt.

OpenAI’s current AGENTS.md documentation explains that Codex reads instruction files before working. Instructions closer to the current directory take precedence over broader repository guidance, and an AGENTS.override.md file can replace an AGENTS.md file at the same level. Confirm the files Codex actually loaded before relying on those rules.