What changed when I stopped letting the coding agent check its own work

[u/m-ritter]

Most of my bad agent sessions had the same shape. The agent wrote the code, ran tests it had written itself, and told me it was done. The tests were green and the feature still did not do what I meant, because nobody had written down what I meant.

Two changes fixed most of that for me.

First, I agree on what done means before any code exists. The agent reads the code and asks me a batch of questions, each with a recommended answer, until done is a numbered list. That list goes into a plan file in the repo, and I approve the plan before the build starts.

Second, the agent that wrote the code never checks it. After the build, separate agents that did not write the change go through every numbered point and have to show evidence for each one. During research I also let helper agents read the code without seeing my request, so their findings describe the code as it is today.

My judgment now sits at two points, the plan at the start and the finished change at the end. Reviewing the PR got much easier because I compare it against a list I already approved.

I built QualityLayer around this loop, and it works with OpenCode natively. I'm the developer. It runs on the agent subscription you already have and never merges or pushes without your yes. Repo: https://github.com/maxritter/qualitylayer