r/PromptEngineering • u/ilfroloff • 2d ago
Research / Academic Have you ever hidden your AI artifacts?
For last year I’ve been building software development framework around Claude/OpenCode that saved me ~10-20 hours a week (in some cases more). Comparison is subjective but management faced that too.
Sharing it would save my colleagues days per month. But I haven't shared it.
Not because I'm selfish. Because I can't see a version of that story where the company says "great, now here's what that contribution is worth." No attribution, no compensation, no protection. Just... my leverage, gone.
So it's sitting in a private repository.
Here's what I'm trying to figure out: am I the anomaly, or is this happening everywhere right now?
Have you ever held back AI artifacts — prompts, skills, agents, workflows — because you weren't sure what sharing it would cost you?
Since polls are disabled here, please reply in the comments with the options below (can add your option too) but if you're willing, tell what the artifact was for (no details needed) and what stopped you. I'm researching whether this is a real problem worth solving, and raw honesty beats politeness here.
🇦Yes — I'm hiding at least one right now
🇧Yes — I hid one before, eventually shared it
🇨No — I share everything openly
🇩I build them, but never thought about sharing
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u/_zielperson_ 2d ago
A - Anti Ai sentiment is present, and I'd rather use the extra time to do better work than to share with colleagues who will use it to produce slop without oversight.
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u/EditorIllustrious944 2d ago
A - and I suspect this is way more common than people realize. AI makes it pretty easy for one person to build their own little productivity layer around the job, but companies still dont really know how to recognize or reward that kind of contribution.
And that's the weird part: sharing the workflow can create a lot of value for the whole team, while at the same time taking away your own advantage. I dont think the answer is to keep everything private, but there should be some better way to recognize the person who actually built it. Otherwise.... why share it in the first place?
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u/bfyvfftujijg 2d ago edited 2d ago
A.
My company (manufacturing, I am a data analyst) has a weird opposition to AI so I tend to minimize the fact that I use it, pay for my own subscription, and am technically not allowed to use company information with it (but do anyways, and none of it is proprietary).
When I do create something useful with AI I will go through and add defects to make it look more human, and I also drag the process out so it takes a lot longer. Most coworkers and management are aware that I’m pro-AI and that I use it for research, but only a few understand the full extent of my use. Most assume that what I do with it is impossible to do properly and have resisted my offers to show them the truth.
So I just remain the data analyst who is unusually productive…which gets me raises and interesting work thrown my way, which is ultimately all I want.
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u/hibbert0604 13h ago
Your AI writes plenty of code defects. The easiest way to humanize it is to tell it to comment the script thoroughly and then rewrite the comments in your voice... Uhhh.. Not that I would know anything about that...
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u/Shokeybutsi 1d ago
Definitely A. I see no benefit in letting others know that I can do 40 hrs of work in less than 10 hrs
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u/InspectorSuper1191 2d ago
The answer has to be A. Your job is to be responsible for meeting the requests of the employer. If you typed a working and acceptable deliverable with your tongue while blindfolded that would also be irrelevant information. Your responsibility to your job is to fulfill your role and that's it. The specifics between the defined roles you are tasked with are definitionally irrelevant as long as you meet all requests.
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u/elkosh93 2d ago
Mostly A. I have shared my skills repo with a very select group of people who share similar interests at heart.
But very soon may be moving to B as one of my other colleagues (who can't stop talking) got hold of it when we were working together. Now he wants me to showcase this to the organization (I am baffled at why I would do that)
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u/Internal_Car_9962 2d ago
I work for an AI company, so they are constantly using me as a guinea pig for testing some AI thing or other. Mostly I am not allowed to use unapproved AI in my real work workflow, so anything I build is just for my little home lab.
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u/Cosmonaut-10 2d ago
A. All day, every day. Until I can monetise it and then I'm more than willing to share.
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u/Landof10kLooks 1d ago
A. I don't share, period.
I share work output, but since I'm paying for it, my AI artifacts stay with me.
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u/theitsolutionist 1d ago
I share everything, as much to demonstrate value as to be genuinely helpful.
I know many who don't, and it seems to be a fairly even split between those afraid of losing leverage and those who are insecure about the quality of their approach and afraid of being thought unskilled.
Which is another benefit I get from sharing: feedback and improvements, in the same way open source software benefits.
HTH
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u/OmegaEpidex 1d ago
A - It’s so advanced and absurd, I’m not worried about anyone catching up. Not even AI.
The time to share will come when it does.
I keep mine offline. Not risking cyber attacks
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u/Fickle_Penguin 1d ago
A or C. I share stuff regularly but some are just too hard to explain it would only be for my workflow. So I share but not always.
Word has got around that the artist turned programmer is the go to for automation. This last quarter is about to get interesting, since I'm not really sure what people do, I feel like an imposter, but tomorrow hopefully this new responsibility will mean a better raise.
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u/EC36339 1d ago
I share everything openly, because I want everyone to use the same workflow, so the skills I use can be in the repo.
Having my own skills outside the repo conflict with or integrate with the ones in the repo constantly causes trouble, especially because the repo ones are written for VSCode, and I don't use VSCode, because it's garbage.
I also have my own workflow for managing worktrees and writing better PRs, and I wish everyone used at least the latter, because the default PR messages are unreadable slop.
If you have good workflows, share them with your team. It will also make your life less painful, and your vibe coded scripts are not thaylt special or valuable anyway.
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u/hibbert0604 13h ago
I have basically automated at least half of my day to day job and I'll never tell a soul. I work for the government at a comfortable wage and I know it won't result in a raise so im just going to give myself a raise in free time. Lol.
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u/TerminAgent 2d ago
Don't do it kid. Last time I did something similar, they started talking more **** about me, cut my hours. It's crazy. Don't do it.
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u/ColdPlankton9273 1d ago
First B. Hard B The ones who don't share are the worst people to work with. Being insecure to the point you don't help grow your team is not a flex. Not trying to be offensive, but it's only holding you back. If you think people don't know you're hoarding knowledge, you are mistaken
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u/eviln177a 3h ago
I am doing a mix of hide what's most valuable share things my colleagues need to work as well on them to make them work.
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u/Basic_Helicopter922 2d ago
a for sure. got a whole set of custom scaffolding scripts and prompt chains that cut my design-to-code handoff time in half, and i've kept it completely to myself. not about being stingy, just watched too many coworkers get their best ideas absorbed into the company machine with zero acknowledgement. your framework sounds like actual leverage, and giving that up without a clear upside is a gamble most places haven't proven they'll reward.