Stop Writing Code, Start Writing Docs

Abstraction: Best practices for agentic coding tools emphasizing documentation over single-shot prompting

Key points:

• Keith Ballinger (Google Cloud Platform Developer Experience VP) argues developers should write user guides, technical designs, and project plans before prompting agents — "slow down to speed up"
• Single-shot prompting with agents fails because models lack developer intent and context; treating the AI like a coworker with proper specs yields far better results
• Ballinger predicts the next abstraction layer in programming is developer intent expressed in natural language, making code a black box — continuing the arc from machine code to assembler to Java to intent
• Gemini CLI is Google's terminal-based agentic coding tool, competing with Claude Code and Cursor; the CLI's resurgence reflects developers' existing terminal habits
• Good writers make good programmers: decomposition, architecture docs, and problem definition are the core skills needed in the agentic coding era

Connections: Google · Gemini · Agentic Coding · Prompt Engineering

Source: https://thenewstack.io/stop-writing-code-start-writing-docs/