Skip the rules file: point your coding agent at Clean Code instead
Al_Grigor · x · 2026-10-23
A practical tip for managing coding agents: instead of maintaining long lists of rules, simply instruct the agent to "follow the principles from the Clean Code book by Robert Martin."
The author tested this on a large codebase started in 2023 — first built by copy-pasting from ChatGPT, then fully with coding agents. When it degenerated into a pile of AI slop, he had the agent refactor the entire codebase guided by the book's principles.
The core idea: using well-established engineering classics as behavioral constraints is simpler and more effective than hand-written rule lists.
Related event: Skip the Rules List: Just Point Coding Agents at Clean Code(2 posts)→
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