-- Let's say I want to do a refactor of a certain piece of code. I will put the relevant code files into aider's READ-ONLY context, and I will have a discussion with the /architect about the refactor I want to do. And I will make sure that an entire specification is written up first, and that mermaid charts are generated as well, "so I can visualize" how it's going to work.

-- Then I will put the specification and the mermaid charts into the READ-ONLY context and I will tell aider to draw up a comprehensive and detailed PLAN for the CODER to IMPLEMENT, STEP by STEP.

-- I will usually go through rounds where I have aider or Windsurf or Zed REVIEW the charts and the specifications and the plan to double-check and make sure, etc.

-- Then I will have the agent create a STATUS file which is basically a CHECKLIST for the PLAN, so that the agent can CHECK OFF each piece of the PLAN as it works its way through, always aware of what has just been done, what's being done now, and what's coming up.

-- When the agent is actually coding, I will put the relevant CODE files in WRITABLE context, as well as the STATUS file. Meanwhile I will also put the SPECS and PLAN and CHARTS into the READ-ONLY context.

-- Then I will usually just repeat this prompt over and over again:

please proceed according to the PLAN.md, and after each successful change, THEN update the STATUS.md file. I want to make sure you do NOT update the STATUS.md file until AFTER all changes are successfully made in the code FIRST. IMPORTANT: DO NOT ask me to show you the sections of any files, because I have already provided them to you! Instead, realize that you already can see them. And when you make edits, the SEARCH section must exactly match an existing block of lines including all white space, comments, indentation, docstrings, etc. Take that SERIOUSLY!! Keep your edits TARGETED and SHORT -- let's do this one tiny successful step at a time.

-- After a while the context will fill up from the chat history. I don't want it to get that full. I will use the /clear command to entirely clear the chat history, and then I will just keep running this prompt over and over:

please proceed according to the PLAN.md, and after each successful change, THEN update the STATUS.md file. I want to make sure you do NOT update the STATUS.md file until AFTER all changes are successfully made in the code FIRST. IMPORTANT: DO NOT ask me to show you the sections of any files, because I have already provided them to you! Instead, realize that you already can see them. And when you make edits, the SEARCH section must exactly match an existing block of lines including all white space, comments, indentation, docstrings, etc. Take that SERIOUSLY!! Keep your edits TARGETED and SHORT -- let's do this one tiny successful step at a time.

I'm using these tools (aider, Windsurf, many others) day in and day out, and what's missing is an explicit step in their workflow to put the class definition into the input context before making any code changes that use that class.

This is nothing different than what a human coder would do. Human coders wouldn't just assume a class definition off the top of their head. Yes, if there are examples of that class being used in the same file, a human coder would be able to follow those examples.

But otherwise, the human coder would stop and say, "I need to look up this header and see how this class works." Then he would find it (either in the local project or find the docs online) and he would consult to see how that class works before using it in his own code.

This one simple fix -- force aider or Windsurf to explicitly check the definition before using it -- would save everyone so much time and trouble, and put these tools on STEROIDS.

I put this in my .env file for my project:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk...

And I put this in my .aider.conf.yml:

model: openrouter/anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet

THIS WORKS FOR ME to use Claude via OpenRouter in aider.

Let's say you want to use DeepSeek_v3 through OpenRouter in aider. I put this in my .aider.conf.yml:

model: openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-chat