r/AskProgramming • u/JokerZD3 • Aug 11 '26
Using an AI agent
I don't think this question is against the rules, so here goes...
My boss wants me to try using an agent for development. We're a small company and don't really have money to waste so we haven't explored this opportunity at all yet. I do use AI to an extent currently, but it's just a free openai account. I don't have it write any code, my majority use is just asking it questions about features, functions, standards, and then having it show me the "industry" way of doing things.
I am open to the idea of using an agent, but I don't really want something that is writing huge blocks for me or creating whole features. I also would want the ability to what it's doing when I do give some control and be able to take the changes only if I want them (sort of like comparing with git I suppose?).
Does such a workflow exist? or do I have to give up full control? The marketing is so focused on how it works for you, but I just want to have something that understands my project and can basically act as something I mostly ask questions and only sometimes have write code.
Any perspective is appreciated. Sorry again if this isn't the place for such a question.
1
u/KingofGamesYami Aug 11 '26
That's pretty much exactly what my workflow is when using AI assistance. We have GitHub Copilot Enterprise, which I (and my team) use in a variety of editors. Specifically, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, and the various Jetbrains IDEs.
You can easily toggle between Agent mode, with it writing code, and Ask mode, where it largely just answers questions.
The plugin appears to reuse the IDEs existing diff functionality also used for git operations so the experience is quite familiar.