> asking it to fix it again works just well enough.
I've yet to encounter any LLM from chatGPT to cursor, that doesn't choke and start to repeat itself and say it changed code when it didn't, or get stuck changing something back and forth repeatedly inside of 10-20 minutes. Like just a handful of exchanges and it's worthless. Are people who make this workflow effective summarizing and creating a fresh prompt every 5 minutes or something?
One of the most important skills to develop when using LLMs is learning how to manage your context. If an LLM starts misbehaving or making repeated mistakes, start a fresh conversation and paste in just the working pieces that are needed to continue.
I estimate a sizable portion of my successful LLM coding sessions included at least a few resets of this nature.
Hm, I use LLMs almost daily, and I've never had it say it changed code and not do it. If anything, they will sometimes try to "improve" parts of the code I didn't ask them to modify. Most times I don't mind, and if I do, it's usually a quick edit to say "leave that bit alone" and resubmit.
> Are people who make this workflow effective summarizing and creating a fresh prompt every 5 minutes or something?
I work on one small problem at a time, only following up if I need an update or change on the same block of code (or something very relevant). Most conversations are fewer than five prompt/response pairs, usually one-three. If the LLM gets something wrong, I edit my prompt to explain what I want better, or to tell it not to take a specific approach, rather than correcting it in a reply. It gets a little messy otherwise, and the AI starts to trip up on its own past mistakes.
If I move on to a different (sub)task, I start a new conversation. I have a brief overview of my project in the README or some other file and include that in the prompt for more context, along with a tree view of the repository and the file I want edited.
I am not a software engineer and I often need things explained, which I tell the LLM in a custom system prompt. I also include a few additional instructions that suit my workflow, like asking it to tell me if it needs another file or documentation, if it doesn't know something, etc.
Creating a new prompt. Sometimes it can go for a while without, but the first response (with crafted context) is generally the best. Having context from the earlier conversation has its uses though.
Bjartr|1 year ago
I've yet to encounter any LLM from chatGPT to cursor, that doesn't choke and start to repeat itself and say it changed code when it didn't, or get stuck changing something back and forth repeatedly inside of 10-20 minutes. Like just a handful of exchanges and it's worthless. Are people who make this workflow effective summarizing and creating a fresh prompt every 5 minutes or something?
simonw|1 year ago
I estimate a sizable portion of my successful LLM coding sessions included at least a few resets of this nature.
NicuCalcea|1 year ago
> Are people who make this workflow effective summarizing and creating a fresh prompt every 5 minutes or something?
I work on one small problem at a time, only following up if I need an update or change on the same block of code (or something very relevant). Most conversations are fewer than five prompt/response pairs, usually one-three. If the LLM gets something wrong, I edit my prompt to explain what I want better, or to tell it not to take a specific approach, rather than correcting it in a reply. It gets a little messy otherwise, and the AI starts to trip up on its own past mistakes.
If I move on to a different (sub)task, I start a new conversation. I have a brief overview of my project in the README or some other file and include that in the prompt for more context, along with a tree view of the repository and the file I want edited.
I am not a software engineer and I often need things explained, which I tell the LLM in a custom system prompt. I also include a few additional instructions that suit my workflow, like asking it to tell me if it needs another file or documentation, if it doesn't know something, etc.
Aeolun|1 year ago
knicholes|1 year ago
slashdev|1 year ago