[mattbrewsbytes]

Your job as an experienced developer is to ship working code, the fact that AI tools are here doesn't change that. I would strive to create as minimal a set of artifacts for AI as possible. Observing where we are today with 6 months or 12 months ago means the state of the art is constantly shifting. Spending a lot of effort implementing some concept you've read about or watched others talk about online might not be useful in 6 months. Its hard to discern valuable content vs. stuff people are finding gets lots of clicks these days.

If what you're creating isn't shippable to a customer/user then really scrutinize it. Things like AI skills, AI task loops, etc. those are all throw-away artifacts, the equivalent of Jira tickets. If you can get AI to help delivery without them, do that. The AI lab companies want you to use tokens but if you can automate something without AI in the mix, since you're experienced I assume you know shell scripting, automation concepts, etc., then automate it to work without token use. This is especially if you are doing something solo - your process and workflow can change on a whim so the least amount of overhead is going to keep you lean and focused on shipping software.

[postexitus]

True, but I see how much of a leverage AI tools give - I would like to exploit them as much as possible and only use my experience where necessary (not necessarily when typing code). I can individually instruct Codex or agents to do somewhat complex work and review and merge, but I am wondering if there is a better way to set everything up.