A synthesis of Mario Zechner's ideas on coding agents. Why the minimalism of the Pi agent, coupled with strict context engineering and CLI tools, often beats heavy frameworks.
Workflow
Once the spec is in place, I split the work between humans, AI, and deterministic tools. The critical test does not always come from the same author as the code, and the critic-agent often matters more than the writer-agent.
The first step in the AI workflow is specification. This article shows how I turn a vague user story into something a human and an agent can use without guessing, with Gherkin, typed examples, and properties.
The implicit promise of AI coding assistants was that tests would become a thing of the past. The reality documented by Kent Beck, ThoughtWorks, and several 2025 studies is the opposite: with AI, tests become essential — but the work has shifted.