Taming the AI Beast: A Disciplined Approach to Collaborative Software Development

This article presents a structured methodology for collaborative AI software development, addressing common pitfalls like code bloat, architectural drift, and context dilution through systematic constraints. The four-stage process involves AI configuration, collaborative planning, systematic implementation, and data-driven iteration. Each stage incorporates systematic constraints and validation checkpoints, emphasizing empirical data over assumptions. The core strategy is decomposing large tasks into small, manageable components, querying the AI with focused, specific requests, and enforcing code quality and architectural consistency via strict guidelines (e.g., max 150 lines per file) and performance benchmarking. A tool, `project_extract.py`, aids project management. A DiscordJS bot example showcases its application.