11 Tiny Coding Agent Fixes With A Stupid Amount Of Payoff

This post provides 11 practical tips for improving the reliability of coding agents. Key technical contributions include: 1. Emphasizing prompt engineering for agents rather than humans. 2. Highlighting the degradation of instruction files over time and the need for maintenance. 3. Advising against the use of `/compact` operations due to potential loss of safety constraints. 4. Recommending the placement of load-bearing rules within hooks for better reliability. 5. Suggesting that smaller context windows can be more effective than larger ones. 6. Explaining common reasons for hitting rate limits quickly. 7. Advising against escalating tasks mid-execution. 8. Debunking the need for explicit agent coordinators. 9. Stating that the writer should not approve their own work. 10. Warning against over-revision of agent output. 11. Framing validation as a continuous system rather than a single step.