Give it the boring jobs

Some of the most important work in the software development lifecycle can also be some of the most boring! Keeping a codebase healthy requires a bunch of small repetitive tasks like keeping up with the breaking changes in dependency updates, or switching from an old architectural pattern to a new one in the hundreds of places that followed the old way.

Large Language Models work best with clear instructions, examples to follow, and just the right amount of context. With a bit of context engineering they can be remarkably effective in these kinds of repetitive and tedious changes - allowing you to make sweeping tech health improvements across either your gigantic monoliths or sprawling micro-services (or both if you’re really lucky). AI might be coming for our jobs, but it’s still not quite there yet, so let’s have fun giving it the boring jobs.