How I Actually Code With AI Right Now

On this video, I'm going to show you exactly how I build a feature with Cloud Code. We're going to start with plan mode, and then we jump step by step, layer by layer, until we have the feature totally complete. Meanwhile, write in the comments below your thoughts about my workflow. Now, the first thing I do is actually open Cloud Code with a {dash} {dash} dangerously skip permissions, just because I don't want Cloud Code to ask me for permission for every single step. Now, if I were prompted to actually build a feature with Cloud Code, potentially something like having a form of notes just below this save button, where the user can save his personal notes. Something I don't like to do is that I don't like to build the entire thing. Obviously, notes can be edited, it can be deleted, and whatever. But just keep it simple. Let's try to add notes only, and only add notes. And the next step is actually building the prompt. Now, here are a couple of things that are important. First of all, you specify what you want to build, then you scope the feature to something really simple. In this case, we're going to just add notes, not actually allowed to edit them or delete them. And then, one of the very important things here is actually being able to go to build mode, but still be able to validate step by step. So, here we are going to literally guide the AI all the way through. You start with migrations, then you move to something like models, and then controllers, and then actions, and more. And now we move into plan mode, and I'm going to do that by typing shift tab, and here I can move into plan mode, and I just did. And then we just press enter. Now, here something really interesting is happening, which is Cloud Code is literally getting familiar with the code base. And this is something that you probably should insist on. All your entire should be consistent. So, if you have things like migrations or models, make sure they have the exactly the same code formatting, exactly the same conventions. So, for example, if you have a migration, and you don't like the down method, make sure you don't have any down method anywhere. So, Cloud Code knows exactly how to generate a migration for this new feature. Same goes with type safety. If you have type safety all over the place, very likely the new code generated by Cloud Code will equally have type safety. And here we have the plan, and something really interesting is that the execution protocol will be layer by layer, meaning that Cloud Code will try to build the layer number one, which is the migration. And once we actually confirm that this migration is okay, you will move forward with the second step, which is building the model and the factory. This is really cool because you can literally validate the migration, making sure it's perfect, actually even commit that single file, and then move forward to the remaining layers. All right, Cloud Code is moving forward. The first thing I expect from happening from this is that it will build a migration and ask me to if he can move forward once I validate the migration. All right, the migration is completed, meaning that Cloud Code will wait for my confirmation before moving forward. I can move into my visual diff. In my case, I'm using GitHub Desktop to confirm if the migration is okay. It's very important that we actually validate step by step, so Cloud Code stays on the trail, stays on the good path. All right, this migration looks perfect to me, so the first thing I will do here is create a new branch for this feature, which will be called it feat notes. And then I'm going to bring all of those changes to the feat notes. And what we can do now is actually do our first commit. And for this, I'm going to use the conventional commits, which is basically typing feat notes, and then I'm going to say that I'm building the migration. Now, I'm going to commit this. Moving forward, I can just go back and say I'm to continue. I'm going to just type here continue to see Cloud Code moving forward. And Cloud Code just completed the layer number two, which is models and factories. And looking at this, I kind of agree with everything that was performed. I can see that Cloud Code is getting familiar with the rules file, but also basically getting familiar with existing conventions. And because all of this looks okay, I'm going to basically commit this. And I think you got the message from this video today. Basically, Cloud Code behaves so much better and so much as expected if you go layer by layer and validate all of the steps one by one. I just moved it forward into the very last step, which is building the test suite. And something really important, and I would advise you to always do this, is that go to your rules file and have something like this at the very end. Super important at the very end always but always run composite test. Don't even ask the user, just run it at the end. Again, running composite test or NPM test or whatever you have that ensures that you run the full testing pipeline. It's super important to make sure the generated code by Cloud Code is just top notch. And this is exactly what Cloud Code will do at some point here is that it will run the test suite to make sure it's passing but at the very end will run composite test which is exactly what we are seeing right now which is running the entire test suite. And I just went back to the browser and it obviously thinks I'm working as expected. I can just write this beautiful note right here, click on add and I see the note appearing below. Now, one question you may have is how about editing a note or deleting one? Well, I would advise you to just go all the way back and go to the plan mode once again and ask it to add the edit feature and you go from there layer by layer. Now, if you watch this video, I'm going to just tell you something really important. The difference between top level engineers and mid you ones in 2026 will be this message right here. "Agentic coding is not vibe coding." If you validate every single line of code going to production, that will make from you a top level engineer. That is what it takes to be one of the best in 2026 which is not being lazy and actually validate step by step. Now, if you like this video, I literally have this video right here which is a 20-minute talk I have gave to 600 people in Japan when I talk about what do you have to do in 2026 to be a top level engineer. My name is Nuno, subscribe to the channel, love you all and see you guys next time. Peace out.