Beyond prompt crafting: How to be a better partner for your AI pair programmer
SMRTR summary
Waffles or omelettes? That's the dilemma Christopher Schidle, Senior Developer Advocate at GitHub, uses to illustrate the importance of context when working with AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot.
Just as a brunch conversation evolves with more specifics, developers can enhance Copilot's suggestions by providing clearer context. This goes beyond crafting prompts to include strategic commenting, custom instruction files, and even specialized servers that connect Copilot to external resources.
Schidle emphasizes the value of project-level guidance in a copilot-instructions.md file, detailing structure, technologies, and coding standards. For task-specific needs, .instructions.md files can offer targeted direction.
"It can take some time to build a collection of instruction files," Schidle notes, "but that investment will pay off in the form of higher-quality code and, in turn, improved productivity."
By thinking beyond prompts, developers can ensure Copilot understands not just what to do, but how to do it in alignment with project needs.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Daily.dev.
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