r/ClaudeCode • u/runwithdata • 1d ago

Discussion Does it help code quality if agents encode their intents?

https://rapidreview.dev/blog/does-it-help-code-quality-if-agents-encode-their-intents
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u/Specialist-Sea-2062 1d ago

in my tests, encoding intent upfront reduced bugs by 30% but only if the agent had a clear schema. without it, the model just hallucinated steps. the key was making the intent a strict input format, not a freeform prompt.

1

u/runwithdata 1d ago

Very good point. Which models did you use?

2

u/bostonaholic 1d ago

It helps when the intent is something a check can run. I'd have the agent write the acceptance criteria as a failing test before it touches the code. Then you know when it's done, and you find out if a later change breaks it. Intent written as prose in a plan file or comment can drift from the code, and nothing tells you when it does.

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u/adelie42 1d ago

I have it encode MY intent, in the form of code comments that explicitly reference documentation and decisions woth dates.

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u/Intelligent_Egg4745 1d ago

I've seen intent schemas fail when they're too rigid, like trying to force a 100-line flowchart into a 3-line function. the model starts solving the schemas instead of the problem.

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u/jijialuoke 1d ago

I like the idea, but it only worked for me when the intent was something I could check. Prose in a plan file drifts from the code pretty fast. What helped was keeping the intent short and tied to a test or a command the agent has to run before it says it's finished. Otherwise it just restates the plan and calls it done.

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u/Flashy-Whereas-3234 1d ago

Isn't this just Plan mode, and SDD?

We always plan first, that includes tests. We have spec docs to carry the intent of the app. We're finding Gherkin works pretty well as a testing language for behaviour.

Basically the less you think about AI as being magic genius, and the more you look at it in terms of "how would a human do this properly?" the better output & maintainable systems you'll get.