How do you set boundaries for AI agent changes in a shared project?
Keep agent tasks focused and reviewable while protecting existing work and configuration.
How do you set boundaries for AI agent changes in a shared project?
An agent task should have a clear area of responsibility. Broad instructions can lead to unrelated refactors that make review harder.
Define the intended change
Name the feature, relevant files, required behavior, and conventions to follow. Explain which existing behavior is important to preserve. Ask the agent to inspect current work before editing and to avoid overwriting unrelated changes. Keep configuration values and credentials outside the task text.
Review the result as a change
Inspect the diff for scope, dependencies, and accidental edits. Run checks appropriate to the affected behavior. If the task reveals a larger architectural issue, document it before expanding the change. Use version control to keep useful checkpoints and make recovery practical. These boundaries are especially useful when several people work in the same repository, even if only one assistant is active.
A working page can hide unrelated file changes, configuration edits, or unnecessary dependencies.
No. It should understand and preserve unrelated changes unless explicitly asked to modify them.
When a concrete dependency requires it and the expanded scope is understood and reviewable.
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