Useful Things Agents Can Do That Are Not Writing Code

# Useful Things Agents Can Do That Are Not Writing Code Source: [https://elijahpotter.dev/articles/useful-things-agents-can-do-that-are-not-writing-code](https://elijahpotter.dev/articles/useful-things-agents-can-do-that-are-not-writing-code) The dis­course is abuzz with the won­der­ful \(and hor­ren­dous\) things you can do when you al­low anAIcod­ing agent to write code\. Peo­ple who al­low an agent \(née clanker\) to write**all**the code in an ap­pli­ca­tion are of­ten called“vibe\-coders”\. This ar­ti­cle is not about vibe cod­ing\. In fact, this ar­ti­cle is about all the things you can do with anAIagent that are sep­a­rate from writ­ing code\. With each of these, I’ll go through the use\-case, then in­clude the lat­est ver­sion of the`pi`prompt that I use\. I do**not**be­lieve you should use my prompts pre­cisely\. I am not sug­gest­ing that you copy my work­flow\. The beauty of many of these tools is that they are flex­i­ble and can be adapted to your style of work\. I of­fer my prompts as in­spi­ra­tion\. Maybe there are things you could be us­ing an agent for that are**not**writ­ing code\. ## Fix Merge Conflicts I of­ten find my­self need­ing to fix merge con­flicts for my PRs be­cause ei­ther my­self or an open\-source con­trib­u­tor has mod­i­fied the code up­stream\. Al­most al­ways, these con­flicts are for­mat­ting or boil­er­plate changes that do not need my full at­ten­tion\. In other words, it’s the per­fect job for a clanker\. Here is my prompt: ``` --- description: Fix a merge conflict in a PR. argument-hint: "<PR NUMBER>" --- I want you to fix the merge conflict in PR #$@. If I have not provided a valid number, please ask me for it. Do so by checking out the PR using the `gh` command, and perform the merge. DO NOT push your changes until I have a chance to review them myself. ``` In`pi`, I can call this like a func­tion: ``` /fix-pr-conflict #4222 ``` It does not mat­ter if I have the rel­e­vantPRdown­loaded and checked out\. The clanker fig­ures it all out non\-de­struc­tively\. ## Locate Relevant Issues When work­ing on open source soft­ware, I of­ten pri­or­i­tize fix­ing bugs that I find an­noy­ing and in­tro­duc­ing fea­tures that[make my own life bet­ter](https://elijahpotter.dev/articles/do_that_which_makes_your_life_easy)\. That’s nat­ural\. When I do, I want to know if I am ac­ci­den­tally solv­ing some­one else’s prob­lem at the same time\. If so, I can link the is­sue in myPRde­scrip­tion or reach out to the per­son di­rectly\. To find these rel­e­vant is­sues, I use this`pi`com­mand: ``` --- description: Find any issues relevant to this branch or a given PR number. argument-hint: "<PR NUMBER>" --- Please locate all issues that might be relevant to the current branch (unless a PR number is provided below). Please list: - If the issue is solved by this PR. - The link to the issue. - Who wrote it. If not the current branch, look at PR #$@. ``` Again, this can be called like a func­tion: ``` /fd-issue ``` ## GHActions Failures 90% of the time a GitHub Actions work­flow fails, it is not due to a bug\. It’s be­cause I for­got to run my for­mat­ter or my sta­tic analy­sis tools \(think Prettier or`tsc`\)\. In this case, it is not a piece of func­tional code that is bro­ken, but an an­no­ta­tion or miss­ing car­riage re­turn\. It is an easy one\-line fix\. Why not make the clanker do it? When a GitHub Actions run fails, I can use an agent with the fol­low­ing prompt to get it fixed tout suite\. ``` --- description: Diagnose any existing GitHub Actions failures for this branch. argument-hint: "<BRANCH>" --- Diagnose any existing GitHub Actions failures for this branch, unless there is a different branch provided below. Once you have taken a look to identify the possible underlying problem, offer a plan to fix it. Do not implement this plan without express approval. If not the current branch, look at $@ ``` It can be run as a com­mand in­side of`pi`: ``` /diagnose-action-failure ``` ## Wrap\-Up I of­fer these prompts as in­spi­ra­tion\. Are there things that you could au­to­mate? If so, please let me know\!