More than just code review
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The key skill required to make productive use of coding agents is being able to confidently instruct them on how to make changes and then confidently verify that those changes have been applied in the correct way. Sometimes this involves reviewing every line of code they have written, but there are other ways to achieve that goal. Eyeballing every line of code has never been the most effective way to validate a change to a piece of software. Posted 22nd August 2026 at 3:56 pm Recent articles Claude's new system prompt really doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics - 2nd September 2026 Claude Fable 5.1 made me a really nice animated pelican - 1st September 2026 Understanding ChatGPT Work - 30th August 2026 This is a note by Simon Willison, posted on 22nd August 2026. code-review 15 ai 2,214 generative-ai 1,962 llms 1,929 coding-agents 243 agentic-engineering 60 Monthly briefing Sponsor me for $10/month and get a curated email digest of the month's most important LLM developments. Pay me to send you less! Sponsor & subscribe