[afro88]

> The moment you see it go off the rails, just throw it out. That problem is too hard for Claude, it’s for you now.

Or, any of:

- the problem was too big in scope and needed a stepped plan to refer to and execute step by step

- your instructions weren't clear enough

- the context you provided was missing something crucial it couldn't find agentically, or build knowledge of (in which case, document that part of the codebase first)

- your rules/AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md needs some additions or tweaking

- you may need a more powerful model to plan implementation first

Just throwing away and moving on is often the wrong choice and you'll get better at using these tools slower. If you're still within the "time it would have taken me to do it myself" window, think about what caused it to go off the rails or fail spectacularly and try giving it another go (not following up, throw away current results and chat and try again with the above in mind)

[polishdude20]

I totally agree. I've recently been using Cursor to help create a new react project with a lot of functionality. I realized I need to have it do more smaller steps that I get to have lots of input on rather than say "this is the big picture now go forth".