SMRTR ProgrammingAug 27, 2026Hacker News

Why coding agents stop early on long-horizon software tasks

SMRTR summary

Factory Research found that AI coding agents stop too early not because they lack skill, but because they lack a proper standard of completion. By adding a separate validator role that builds an independent, executable test suite before implementation begins, agents rebuilt complex programs like GDAL and DuckDB from 36% to 90% and 34% to 80% behavioral parity, respectively — a dramatic leap using the same underlying model.

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