No, it’s not the same as copying and pasting the TODO into a prompt. Embedding the TODO in code instead of the prompt reduces tokens burned and increases accuracy because it’s observing the TODO in context. Sure you can write more prompting to provide that context, but it still won’t be as accurate. The less context you provide via prompting and instead provide more context through automatic deterministc feedback the better the results
Okay so now I think you’re describing the behaviour I take for granted with the harness i.e. Claude Code.
Having good repo readiness through a good agents/claude.md file + tests + docs means the LLM is able to read more files into its context.
It never occurred to me that anyone would prompt in isolation of their repos but I guess thats exactly what it was like for me last year when I was just feeding ChatGPT prompts away from the repo.
Yes, code harnesses help by providing deterministic feedback like with a language server and reduce the amount of prompting requirements. I guess I should have led with that example 😅
Gotcha…I’ve always struggled to pick up the vocabulary around technical concepts - I guess ive just never prioritised it, and now this whole new field has materialised with a whole new vocabulary to go along with it! I get the tech. The words are my achilles heel.
No, it’s not the same as copying and pasting the TODO into a prompt. Embedding the TODO in code instead of the prompt reduces tokens burned and increases accuracy because it’s observing the TODO in context. Sure you can write more prompting to provide that context, but it still won’t be as accurate. The less context you provide via prompting and instead provide more context through automatic deterministc feedback the better the results
Okay so now I think you’re describing the behaviour I take for granted with the harness i.e. Claude Code.
Having good repo readiness through a good agents/claude.md file + tests + docs means the LLM is able to read more files into its context.
It never occurred to me that anyone would prompt in isolation of their repos but I guess thats exactly what it was like for me last year when I was just feeding ChatGPT prompts away from the repo.
Yes, code harnesses help by providing deterministic feedback like with a language server and reduce the amount of prompting requirements. I guess I should have led with that example 😅
Gotcha…I’ve always struggled to pick up the vocabulary around technical concepts - I guess ive just never prioritised it, and now this whole new field has materialised with a whole new vocabulary to go along with it! I get the tech. The words are my achilles heel.