The Skeleton of the Workflow
The author's method revolves around one core: before writing any code, get the plan straight with Claude Code first. Clarify the goal, break down the steps, and set acceptance criteria for each step, so the model first understands "what to do and what counts as success" before entering execution. This stands in sharp contrast to the freewheeling usage of "just throw the requirement at it and watch it wing it." The investment in the planning phase seems to slow down the start, but it drastically reduces rework—with a clear target, the model is far less likely to drift, and by a smaller margin.
Details Worth Copying From the Planning Phase
What's copiable in this piece is in the details: the author has the model write the plan into a file stored in the repo, checks it off item by item during execution, and returns to the plan file to realign whenever it drifts; before a big change, they have the model restate its own understanding first, because the cost of catching a discrepancy is lowest at this step; and each step is tied to a runnable verification (test, build, script), rather than eyeballing whether it "looks right." Individually, none of these is remarkable; together, they're the reason for the author's stable output. Many in the comments report that after following it for a week, their rework rate visibly dropped—far cheaper to set up this workflow first than to switch to a stronger model.
via: Hacker News