Make Version Control a Reflex
Version control is your safety net, and with AI it becomes essential. The AI can change ten files in five seconds — you need a clean way to inspect, keep, or throw away that work.
- often, in small chunks. Before you ask for a big change, commit what works. A clean working tree means you can always get back to it.
- Read the diff before committing. This is your real review step. You don't have to understand every line, but you should understand what changed and why.
- Use branches for risky work. Spin up a , let the AI go wild, and merge only if you like the result. If not, delete it — no harm done.
- Write honest commit messages. Future-you and the AI both read history to understand intent.
The mental shift: commits aren't bureaucracy, they're checkpoints in a game. Save before the boss fight. And learn the two escape hatches that make a clean history worth keeping — git checkout . (or git restore .) to throw away uncommitted experiments, and git revert to undo a commit you already made. Knowing you can always get back to a known-good state is exactly what lets you hand the AI a long leash without anxiety.