My GenAI development workflow: Idea to Code

genAI development   development   testing   automation   idea to code   harness engineering  

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This article is the first in a series about the GenAI-based development platform (aka. harness) that I’ve been developing to make GenAI-based coding agents like Claude Code more productive and less frustrating. The platform is a set of tools, constraints and feedback loops that guide their behavior, catch mistakes and prevent them from generating large amounts of poor-quality code that is often incomplete and untested.

The complete list of articles in the series is as follows:

• Part 0 - My GenAI development workflow: Idea to Code
• Part 1 - Guardrails for GenAI coding agents
• Part 2 - How Idea to Code turns an idea into working, tested software

This article is about Idea to Code, my GenAI-based development workflow.

For example, I recently used this workflow to implement distributed tracing support for the Eventuate platform using Micrometer Tracing: eventuate-tram-spring-micrometer-tracing.

The starting point was this idea:

The eventuate-tram-spring-cloud-sleuth project provides distributed tracing support for the Eventuate Framework. However, Spring Cloud Sleuth has been deprecated and replaced by Micrometer Tracing (https://micrometer.io/docs/tracing). Implement distributed tracing for the Eventuate Framework using Micrometer Tracing.

The workflow guided me through refining the idea (see interactive Q&A discussion) into a specification and implementation plan, and then interactively executing the plan using test-driven development (TDD).

Key features of Idea to Code

• Refines an idea (feature, bug fix, …) into a specification and implementation plan
• Interactively executes the implementation plan using test-driven development (TDD), with human oversight
• Constrains GenAI interactions with explicit development and debugging instructions
• Implements a feedback loop for continually improving how Claude Code operates.

Implemented by CLI commands and a Claude Code plugin

Idea to Code consists of the following:

• The i2code go CLI commands that implements the Idea to Code workflow
• A Claude Code plugin that provides skills, commands and hooks
• Template CLAUDE.md and .settings.local.json
• Supporting scripts

Improving how Claude Code operates

Idea to Code includes a feedback loop for continually improving how Claude Code operates. The plugin records user sessions and provides a slash command for recording problems. There are CLI commands for analyzing the filed issues and improving the plugin.

To learn more and use Idea to Code

To learn more and use Idea to Code take a look at the Github repository.

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