Coding with AI assistants: practical guides, prompts and safe habits
A practical course on coding with AI assistants: explaining unfamiliar code, writing tests, debugging, refactoring, code review, security and working with agents in your editor and terminal.
The one-line rule: bots draft, explain and suggest. Tests, review and you decide what ships. Never paste secrets into a prompt. Check prices and plan features on official pages; this section does not list prices.
AI code reviewUse a bot as a second reviewer
Tests firstMake the bot prove its code
Security & secretsKeep keys out of prompts
Everyday workflows
Explain unfamiliar code
Paste a function or file and get a plain-English walkthrough, data flow, and the questions to ask before you change it.
Write tests first
Get the bot to write tests that pin current behavior and edge cases, then use them to check its own code changes.
Debugging with a bot
Give the error, stack trace, expected vs actual and what you tried, and get ranked hypotheses instead of random fixes.
Refactoring
Small, behavior-preserving refactors backed by tests: rename, extract, simplify, and remove duplication without breaking things.
AI code review
Get a second pair of eyes on pull requests: bugs, security, readability and missing tests, with a review checklist prompt.
Docs and comments
READMEs, docstrings, API docs and changelogs drafted from code, then checked for accuracy.
Learn a new language
Use a bot as a patient tutor: translate concepts from a language you know, get exercises and code review.
Regex and SQL
Bots write regular expressions and SQL fast; here is how to test them so they don't silently match the wrong thing.
Shell scripts
Get bash and PowerShell scripts with explanations, dry runs and safety flags, and spot dangerous commands before running.
Agents, tools and setup
Coding agents
How agentic coding tools work (plan, edit, run tests), how to scope tasks, and how to review what they change.
Choosing a tool
A checklist for comparing coding assistants (editor support, context, privacy, data use, admin controls) and checking pricing on official pa
Prompting for code
Context, constraints, examples and step-by-step requests that make coding assistants produce code that fits your project.
Local coding models
When and how to use local open-weight models for coding, hardware trade-offs and editor integration.
Git with AI
Commit messages from diffs, explaining merge conflicts, and recovering from mistakes without losing work.
APIs and docs
Stop bots inventing API methods: paste official docs, pin versions, and verify against the reference.
Data analysis code
Load, clean and chart data with AI-written Python, and check results against a hand calculation.
Quality, security and careers
Secrets and security
Never paste API keys, passwords or customer data; use environment variables and secret scanning; review AI code for common vulnerabilities.
OWASP-style review
Check AI-generated web code for injection, broken access control, misconfiguration and other OWASP Top 10 risks.
Dependencies
Bots sometimes suggest packages that don't exist or are misspelled; attackers register those names. How to verify.
Licensing and AI code
Basics of permissive vs copyleft licenses, attribution, and company policies for AI-generated code. Not legal advice.
Performance
Profile first, then ask the bot targeted questions about the hot spot, and measure again.
Accessible front-ends
Use bots to check HTML for semantic structure, labels, contrast and keyboard access, against WCAG.
Learning to code with AI
How beginners can use bots as tutors, not answer machines: hints first, explain back, build projects.
Careers and interviews
Practice interviews, review your resume's technical bullets and plan learning, honestly.
Where these facts come from
- OWASP Top 10
- CISA: Secure by Design
- GitHub Docs: Secret scanning
- W3C: WCAG overview
- Open Source Initiative: Licenses
- NIST SP 800-218: Secure Software Development Framework
Tools, features and prices change often. We don't list prices; check each vendor's official pricing page. Never paste secrets into a prompt. Checked Oct 30, 2026.