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I do not understand how some of y’all are not under water with fragile code that is too massive to possibly parse. Every engineering team I know is currently tr

I do not understand how some of y’all are not under water with fragile code that is too massive to possibly parse. Every engineering team I know is currently trying to undo the damage of the last 6-12mo when they all got more serious into adopting these tools (usually Claude). It hasn’t completely screwed them over, but the the debt is substantial and cannot be put off anymore it seems. They argue the net is positive but clearly the “100x productivity multiplier” claims have been dashed on the shoals of reality for these groups. This is anecdotal, but it’s across the board in my vicinity. I’m curious how common this is and if it’s just “the new normal” to adopt the nauseating Covid phrase.

briHass 1mo ago
The key seems to be extensive integration/end-to-end tests with gold standard assertion data. Heck, even just saving off the json from API endpoints and using that as a reference to compare after changes works pretty well. Spin up a database backup with that static starting point, run actions, compare state afterwards. These types of high-level tests are frustrating beyond belief to humans due to their lack of specificity, but with the agents, they don't get annoyed investigating possible regressions from non-specific signals. They also aren't as painful to maintain as one would think, because a regression flagging test can be traced by the agent and represented as the business rule that was violated. I've found recent models to be really excellent at discerning a true regression from an outdated test assertion, especially if they are able to trace the failing test back to the PR and work ticket that built it.
- Forgeties79 1mo ago
  It just seems like everybody I know is realizing they’ve built way too much to possibly wade through and a lot of it is completely unnecessary. Using the tool that created the problem to solve the problem does not seem like the best course of action to me.
agumonkey 1mo ago
Management still pushes for more ai and will rather hire more heads to "handle" issues.
- Forgeties79 1mo ago
  Hiring? Seems to me that market’s rough right now and AI is being used for cost cutting.
  - agumonkey 1mo ago
    I know but in our case they really did put out a few job ads. The market is full of different small contexts where things are a bit flipped.
    - Forgeties79 1mo ago
      I’m glad to hear it truly
      - agumonkey 1mo ago
        Yeah I guess the job market will not disappear as fast as I could believe when Claude code came out. Maybe people can enjoy a few more years of work.

briHass 1mo ago

The key seems to be extensive integration/end-to-end tests with gold standard assertion data. Heck, even just saving off the json from API endpoints and using that as a reference to compare after changes works pretty well. Spin up a database backup with that static starting point, run actions, compare state afterwards. These types of high-level tests are frustrating beyond belief to humans due to their lack of specificity, but with the agents, they don't get annoyed investigating possible regressions from non-specific signals. They also aren't as painful to maintain as one would think, because a regression flagging test can be traced by the agent and represented as the business rule that was violated. I've found recent models to be really excellent at discerning a true regression from an outdated test assertion, especially if they are able to trace the failing test back to the PR and work ticket that built it.

Forgeties79 1mo ago
It just seems like everybody I know is realizing they’ve built way too much to possibly wade through and a lot of it is completely unnecessary. Using the tool that created the problem to solve the problem does not seem like the best course of action to me.

agumonkey 1mo ago

Management still pushes for more ai and will rather hire more heads to "handle" issues.

Forgeties79 1mo ago
Hiring? Seems to me that market’s rough right now and AI is being used for cost cutting.
- agumonkey 1mo ago
  I know but in our case they really did put out a few job ads. The market is full of different small contexts where things are a bit flipped.
  - Forgeties79 1mo ago
    I’m glad to hear it truly
    - agumonkey 1mo ago
      Yeah I guess the job market will not disappear as fast as I could believe when Claude code came out. Maybe people can enjoy a few more years of work.