Helping your team level up with proven practices, intentional architecture and honest guidance. https://verygoodsoftware.net/ 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z Christoph Gockel https://verygoodsoftware.net/posts/a-rule-is-not-the-last-step/ 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z

Moving a convention out of a document and into the linter turns a request into a rule. There is one more step after that. I wrote one writing rule down for ten years and it changed nothing. Now I decide it once and never think about it again.

https://verygoodsoftware.net/posts/a-request-is-not-a-rule/ 2026-08-01T00:00:00.000Z 2026-08-01T00:00:00.000Z

The talk around agents is all about new machinery. Often the better move is to point the old machinery at the agent's output. A convention in a document is a request. In the linter it becomes a rule.

https://verygoodsoftware.net/posts/the-tests-pass-now-read-the-code/ 2026-07-26T00:00:00.000Z 2026-07-26T00:00:00.000Z

Passing tests tell you the code ran. They do not tell you the design is sound. A story about test-induced design damage in AI-written code.

https://verygoodsoftware.net/posts/you-cant-prompt-your-way-to-quality/ 2026-07-01T00:00:00.000Z 2026-07-01T00:00:00.000Z

LLM-assisted coding is useful. But the idea that it replaces engineering is wrong. Quality is not something you achieve once and then keep by default. It takes constant attention.