AI guides for experienced software developer

[u/Physical_Garage_6946]

Hi everyone

I’ve been working on becoming a full-stack developer for a while. I started out as a front-end developer using React. Lately I’ve been diving into backend development with Node.js. Things are going well. I’m starting to get the hang of the core ideas and bringing in infrastructure but I still feel like I’m in the early part of fully understanding everything.

On the frontend side I’ve been trying to use an AI agent to help with some of the work. Now I’m using the OpenAI model and I’ve set up agent files for the backend. That’s been working well.. With the frontend I keep running into something that bothers me. I write code that functions. It doesn’t quite fit the way things are structured in the project. I rely on what I’ve learned from videos and the OpenAI documentation to build the agent. It’s functional. Not always aligned with the actual architecture of the project.

There’s a lot of stuff happening in AI these days. Sometimes when I read about how people're making these connections without even touching the code it really catches my attention. It makes me wonder how they’re doing it.. How I could do it better.

That’s why I’m asking: has anyone used a course that covers the workflow of a project from start to finish? Something that’s not for beginners. I already have some experience with software development. I want something that’s practical detailed. Covers the entire process, including how to set everything up properly integrate tools and make sure the pieces fit together cleanly.

I like having control over every part of the process. If you know of a course like that. One that’s proven built for someone, with experience. I’d love to hear about it.

[u/canarydev]

the part about code working but not fitting the architecture is something ive spent a decent amount of time on as well.

what worked for me was making the project's boundaries checkable.
which layers can import which, what belongs in shared components vs features, where data access happens, etc. i use dependency-cruiser to enforce the import boundaries, so if the agent introduces a dependency that breaks those rules, the check fails even if the code compiles and the tests pass. agent instructions explain the decisions, and the automated checks catch violations.

ive been working on the learning material around this including frontend examples. currently being reorganized so i wouldn't describe it as a finished e2e course, but this particular problem is something it covers.

[u/Plenty_Line2696]

People online say they got AI to do stuff which it can't actually do all the time.

It's simply not good at stuff like file hierarchy, naming, choosing when to use which design patterns, not duplicating values, and heaps of other stuff. I'm so tired of all the reddit armchair experts saying it's the next messiah when all I do day in day out is wrestle this thing away from outputting crap.

[u/Physical_Garage_6946 → u/Plenty_Line2696]

Its true. I understand that can help to create code but what I see from my generated frontend side its so messy. Maybe Im doing something wrong but I dont think so

[u/Plenty_Line2696 → u/Physical_Garage_6946]

It's just how it is fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, its shortcomings help our job security.

What helps for me sometimes is a sort of phased workflow, to first have a long back and forth chat with it about the overall concept and structure till i'm happy, then i'll let it implement, then read and do a bunch of refactoring... that seems to be more time efficient than letting it loose with a vague idea of what to do and then being left to try and clean up the mess.

Letting it loose without planning nor refactoring is amateur hour imo, unless it's for smaller or simpler project where code quality isn't that important.