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Developer All Attendees Gaige Hall 203

Unlocking the Power of Agent-Driven Development with Rules

Brian is great at surfing

Brian Perry

Founding Engineer at Actual AI

The effectiveness of AI coding agents has grown exponentially in the past year. Once a skeptic, I now rely on agent-driven development as a cornerstone of my daily workflow. Yet many developers and teams still find themselves struggling to see the benefits they expect, or abandoning these tools altogether.

In this session, we’ll explore one of the overlooked keys to making coding agents truly effective: rules. Rules control how the agent behaves, by providing a set of reusable, scoped instructions. Think of your AI assistant as your best junior developer - capable and tireless, but in need of clear guardrails. Rules provide the structure that allows agents to succeed. If AI gets it wrong, don’t give up - write a rule.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand why rules are critical to successful agent-driven development.
  • Learn practical strategies to define rules.
  • Understand the various rules formats used by tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex.
  • See how to build a “rules-driven” workflow.
  • Explore tooling like backlog.md and see a live demo in action.

Additional Details:

  • Audience level: All Attendees
  • Topic: Developer
  • Room: Gaige Hall 203

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