Your First Safe Agent-Driven Change

Make your first real code change with AI assistance, with safety rails and verification steps.

What you'll accomplish

Successfully make a small, reversible change to a codebase using AI assistance.

Prerequisites

A code editor (VS Code, Cursor, or similar)
Git installed on your system
A simple project to work with (or use our example)

Overview

In this lesson, you'll make your first AI-assisted code change. We'll use a simple task with built-in safety rails so you can learn the workflow without risk.

Tip

The key to safe vibecoding is small, reversible changes. Always work in a way where you can easily undo if something goes wrong.

Step 1: Set Up a Safe Environment

Before making any changes, ensure you can undo them.

Step 2: Plan Your Change

Before asking AI for help, know what you want:

Current state: A simple Python script that prints "Hello, World!"
Desired state: The script takes a name as input and greets that person
Constraint: Keep it simple, no external dependencies

Step 3: Ask for Help

Use this prompt with your AI tool of choice:

Simple Enhancement Request

vibecoding

A constrained request for a small feature addition

I have a simple Python script in main.py that currently prints "Hello, World!".

I want to modify it to:
1. Ask the user for their name
2. Greet them by name
3. Keep it simple - no external libraries

Please show me the modified code and explain what changed.

Variables:

Step 4: Review the Output

The AI should give you something like:

python
# main.py - Personalized greeting
name = input("What's your name? ")
print(f"Hello, {name}!")

Before applying this:

Does the code make sense?
Are there any unexpected imports or dependencies?
Does it match what you asked for?

Step 5: Apply and Test

Step 6: Commit Your Change

If the change works correctly:

bash
git add main.py
git commit -m "Add personalized greeting"

How to Undo

If something went wrong:

bash
# Discard all changes and go back to the last commit
git checkout .

# Or if you already committed:
git reset --hard HEAD~1

Danger

git reset --hard is destructive! It permanently removes uncommitted changes. Always commit frequently so you can roll back safely.

Common Failures and Fixes

Problem	Solution
"python3 not found"	Try `python` instead, or install Python
Git not initialized	Run `git init` in your project directory
AI gave complex code	Ask for a simpler version

Verify Your Understanding

You've completed this lesson if you can:

0/4

Next: Learn how to ask for fixes without spiraling into complexity.