AI assistants on large codebases
On This Lesson 4 topics
This lesson is planned. The outline below lists the topics it will cover. The full lesson has not been published yet.
In this lesson
give an assistant the right context, not the whole repository.
Planned topics
- Context is limited; relevant beats large. Include the files involved, the test, the convention doc, and the failing output.
- State the goal, constraints, and what must not change.
- Point to existing patterns: "follow
PaymentService's error handling". - Keep a short project conventions file the assistant reads (tool-specific; verify the current mechanism before recording).
- Never paste secrets, tokens, or customer data into prompts; use synthetic data.
Draft outline details
Demonstration
a prompt with goal, three files, the failing test output, and "do not change public method signatures".
Check your understanding
Name two things never to include in a prompt.
Show answer
Secrets and customer data.
Practice
Apply this lesson with the module's lab, exercises and quiz.
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