You asked for a date-formatting helper. The agent says it added one. Here is the part that belongs to you.
Step 1: see what actually changed
The agent’s summary is a claim. git status is evidence — it shows you every file that is new or different, with no interpretation.
Do that in the terminal below, then read the new file with cat, then commit it.
Two different questions
git status answers “which files changed”. git diff answers “what changed inside them”. You want both, in that order, on every turn that touches code.
Step 2: read the
Green lines were added, red lines were removed. You are not grading style. You are asking three things:
- Is this what I asked for?
- Did anything change that I did not ask about? A “helpful” reformat of a whole file will drown the actual change in noise.
- Do I understand every line? If not, ask. “Explain line 14” is a perfectly good request.
Step 3: run it
Reading catches roughly half the problems. Running catches the other half — the invented function, the import that does not resolve, the option that never existed in that library.
Start the app. Click the thing. Run the tests. Whatever “run it” means for your project, do that, not a mental simulation of it.
Quick check
The agent added a helper and also reformatted the whole file. What do you do?
Step 4: commit
You are happy with it. Save the point.
git add .
git commit -m "add formatDate helper"
That is now a place you can return to from any mess the next turn creates. This is the single habit that changes how working with an agent feels: with a clean behind you, a bad turn is an inconvenience instead of a disaster.
One turn, one commit
Commit after every turn you are happy with, not at the end of the day. A commit per turn means “throw away the last change” is always a precise, painless operation.
What a good first edit feels like
Small. Boring. Reviewed in ninety seconds. Committed.
If your first real edit is a nine-file feature, you have skipped the part where you learn what this tool does well. Do three small ones first. You will read diffs faster, you will spot the invented function sooner, and you will have three commits to prove it.