Comment by realityfactchex

Comment by realityfactchex 5 days ago

7 replies

1. Write a fully-defined specification file as markdown in technical-enough but business-enough language, without repeating anything, and including all requirements and context, being sure to emphasize what is important, how to make decisions if needed, and, most critically, what elements must exist and how they must behave in the outcome. This is logically outlined. A junior engineer could understand what the output needs to do without help, a mid engineer could implement it sufficiently well without help, and a senior engineer could implement it gracefully without help.

2. Submit the fully-defined requirements .md file to the LLM by drag-and-drop. If there are starting files to be modified, drag and drop those files as well (as a zip if hierarchical, or as unpackaged files if a flat structure is suitable).

3. Wait for LLM to be done. This can take as long as it needs to, since this process supports specification files with requirements of arbitrary complexity. Receive the correct, full output fileset as a downloadable file from the LLM. (If I asked for instructions on how to use the files that the LLM provides, that is included in the output fileset, too.)

Oh wait, this does not exist. Sorry! But it is what I want, so it is still my "ultimate AI-assisted coding setup".

muzani 4 days ago

I'm confused. It does exist. The "markdown reqs" has been a thing at work. Shared markdown is in the code and we review it.

Combine it with Cursor and you don't have to drag and drop or download anything.

I just set up an architecture.md for it to navigate. With Cursor and something like Gemini Pro, you can even make the AI do the work and edit the docs once done. I even have a roadmap.md so I can remember where I left off, which helps a lot when you return to the project in a month.

nico 5 days ago

It does feel like what agents are trying to achieve

In my experience, there are a lot of details that always emerge during development, that require an person’s involvement. Also agents tend to choke on long instructions, they are usually better at short instructions with very well defined context

datadrivenangel 4 days ago

The core problem is that a fully defined requirements document for software with any novelty ultimately involves code level logic and will often be more verbose than just the code...

segmondy 5 days ago

It does exist and have existed for a long time, you need to go explore the tools out there.

  • realityfactchex 5 days ago

    Really, it exists?

    Please, if anyone can name or link just one such tool that actually satisfies what I described, I would be very appreciative.

    I think the closest I've seen is Aider or even ChatGPT, but I don't think they actually meet these requirements.

    As far as I have seen, to correctly make anything above some moderate threshold of complexity has the LLMs or even LLM-system requiring a human in the loop.

    I am willing to put in the work. Please nudge me toward what to explore more, if you really think what I wrote exists as described. I am very eager to explore more. I know to do it. Point me there. Thank you, really.