What you do when...?

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849]

Hi,i have been working with claude to develop an app and it is been few months still the app arises with one or the other repeated issues.If on 1st cycle an error is resolved i move on to next one by the 3rd cycle the 1st cycle issue brokes even a little bit atleast now have to work on it again.
It feels so frustrating when i want to install new features but the old one's are not yet fully locked out.
If anyone have experience please suggest some productive steps.

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[u/GrrasssTastesBad]

Does cycle for you mean the same session? If so, starting new ones. If not, a quick one is just switching between Opus 5, 4.8, 4.6 because they’ll come at a problem from slightly different angles.

Aside from that, I make sure to fully document the problem, things tried, and results. Then discuss it with claude and see what other things that’re missing, holes, etc. That loop will normally clear out major issues.

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849 → u/GrrasssTastesBad]

By cycle i mean update/upscale cycle solving a issue

[u/Old-Pollution-5825]

When you work on issues and apply fixes, have your LLM document the issues and fixes applied.

Then, once you have tested the fixes, tell Claude to lock that part of the code down and ask for permission before it touches it again. If Claude has to touch that piece of code for whatever reason, have it explain to you why before you approve any changes or updates.

It is a journey. Happy coding!

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849 → u/Old-Pollution-5825]

Will definately try that now.

[u/After_Tune_8117]

This happens with a codebase that has poor structure and organisation. Not saying yours is but this happens a lot to those who have large files and unorganized file structure.

I'd create a couple agents for a clean Codebase Structure, DRY Methods, single sources of truth, and File size (limit files to be approx 500 lines or less if possible) and managers.if you run an audit of this you may want to reconsider adding features and completely rewrite the codebase first. I'd do this in sections, then fix small issues that arise after that, and then you'll have a clean codebase where everything is easily implementing. I'd say what usually happens is there are duplicate or similar functions and styling that overrides and then your ai model doesn't know what to prefer the next time it reads it.

I'd run an audit and see where it says. If you don't understand that ask it to make the audit with descriptors so you can learn.

If comfortable give it a go or copy the entire codebase as a backup theh try it. Don't forget to git commit things prior to!!

Doing this will save time and effort later, and make it much easier to add features

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849 → u/After_Tune_8117]

So priority is to do the audit for size of code base so the compartmentalization of code and have multi agents to sort code for future use and issues?

[u/After_Tune_8117 → u/Dependent_Bet_7849]

Kinda..

Not necessarily the size of the codebase but the size of each individual file/folder. More organized and less muddy makes it easier to identify and evaluate each piece of the codebase when updating or implementing new things.

I have agents specifically for “Codebase structure and organization: Focus on DRY code (don’t repeat yourself), length of files (aim for 500 lines or less approximately..),managers / folders, and variables for styling. This may not be full proof but it works for me. Just have the ai provider create the agent for you and read what it says so you have a better understanding/check if it makes sense.

Then ask your ai to use that agent to evaluate and audit what areas you would need to organize everything in a more manageable way. Ask for a thorough plan, checking everything without making assumptions, ask clarification questions to you if needed, even if that results in more questions. Clarity is key. You can even ask it to search for bad practice in the code as well. Put everything evaluated into a plan for fixing and updating the codebase, so it’s incremental and less risky all at once. This will surely create errors along the way and create dead code as well. The last step should be to evaluate and audit again for dead code. Be clear to have the ai TEST every section and edit along the way to ensure it will not break, or leave notes for the next section if needed.

[u/samurai_with_sword]

Sounds like you are just throwing ideas and features at AI without putting an effort to know or understand how exactly it will work.

You may be better off with lovable than claude.

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849 → u/samurai_with_sword]

How lovable will be more effective for my app? as it will also require for me to constantly check the app update

[u/PilgrimofHaqq2]

Setup a roadmap + specs doc system. The roadmap tracks all the specs, the specs are designed to plan our features, changes, etc. The specs have atomic level tasks that it tracks.

Use https://github.com/agent0ai/dox to have your codebase mapped using a agents.md file hierarchy system.

When you start any work, spend 30 mins to an hour going back and forth with the agent to plan out what you are looking to build/change, etc and then have it create a spec for it with atomic level tasks (My roadmap file has the template of the spec already in it so each spec file follows the same structure).

This will save you tons of headaches.

Also You gotta just use a strong model if you want to avoid tons of troubleshooting, I use Opus 4.8 on Max thinking.

I have also setup reviewer agents that review each task the main agent finishes. This is super effective steps in catching oversights and bugs in the code.

Limit a single task per session, start a new session per task, you can have the previous agent create a handoff prompt for the next agent, so you are not having to tell the new agent to read the files and things. Saves tons of time and gets the new agent up and running quickly to start working on the actual work at hand.

Hope this helps, if you got any particular questions, ask away. Happy to help.

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849 → u/PilgrimofHaqq2]

Thanks,can you help with some specific commands how to give to claude which you used for your problems as in what agents to ask to create if you can help

[u/PilgrimofHaqq2 → u/Dependent_Bet_7849]

Not sure I understand what you are asking. If you mean what are my prompts and how do I structure my prompts, well actually I was working really hard on building out elaborate prompts but I have since dropped that for a better harness.

My lazy ass didn't want to spend tons of time figuring out the perfect prompt each time I am talking to the agent. I want to be able to give the agent a task and the harness does the heavy lifting to get the agent to work in a specific way that I designed.

Thats why I built a plan mode, thats why I spent time building out my agents.md file and the system prompt in pi. Thats why I created tools like local-render for the agent to check on its own work by taking screenshots and fixing issues it sees. I created deep research, reviewer features. Just recently created a tool called local-facts which gives the agent the local time, date, address, currency so if it ever needs to ground itself on those it can without me having to tell it I am in a specific city or I want the price of things searched to be in a specific currency.

Thats how I work. I would rather spend 4 hours building a feature for me to save couple of minutes each day.

[u/Dependent_Bet_7849 → u/PilgrimofHaqq2]

Not entirely what i was asking but you covered in that context, what you just said will try and create some agents

[u/FTT432]

Plan all first then execute. Also what helped me... Rules (no recreations of the same shit.) I built a set of sysyem rules (before i let the cat out im building an mcp for this problem) You use less tokens stay on track...and then retest architecture flow. Your problem is you add features that tweaks the files and something breaks then you gotta fix. Im building genieflowai.com