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Pip Decks AI Building Bootcamp

Before You Go In Circles

Going round and round trying to fix something is a common trap. Here are some helpful reminders to avoid it:

  1. Commit your work. Before you start chasing a bug, make sure everything done so far is saved. Git commit. That way, if things get worse, you can always go back.

  2. Consider starting a fresh session. Sometimes the agent has gone down a rabbit hole on one feature and it’s got confused context from all the failed attempts.

  3. Check your setup. Is your .env file actually there? Are all the keys correct? Did you maybe set up the environment variables locally but forget to add them to your hosting platform like Vercel or GitHub secrets?

  4. Think about updating your context. Your agents.md, your skills, whatever instructions you’ve given. If you keep running into the same type of problem, maybe the agent needs better guidance.

Improving Your Instructions

Section titled “Improving Your Instructions”

Say the agent keeps trying to use a tool that doesn’t work, or it keeps formatting something wrong, or it keeps forgetting that your project has a specific setup. That’s your cue to add that information to your agents.md. “Use pnpm instead of npm.” “Always run migrations before testing.” “The API endpoint (A specific URL where an API receives requests.) is this, not that.”

It’s tricky if you’re not technical. How do you know what to add? When the agent finally does solve it, ask it. “What was the problem? What should be added to the instructions so this doesn’t happen again?” It can diagnose the problem and suggest an instruction to help avoid it.