When to Let AI Run vs. Steer Manually

Not every step needs the same grip on the wheel.

Let the AI run freely when:

• The step is small and well-defined ("add a button").
• It's a common pattern the AI has clearly seen a thousand times.
• A mistake is cheap and obvious (you'll see it the moment you run the app).

Steer manually — smaller prompts, closer review — when:

• The change touches data you can't easily recover (deleting records, migrations).
• The AI keeps "fixing" the same thing in circles.
• Behavior is subtle and won't show up just by glancing at the screen (money math, permissions, auth).
• You've made two attempts and it's getting worse, not better.

A reliable rule: the bigger the blast radius, the smaller the step.