# Building With AI Agents

Help users master the transition from manual coding to managing AI-driven development...

- Repository: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills (1456 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-07-16
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill building-with-ai-agents -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill building-with-ai-agents -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill building-with-ai-agents -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill building-with-ai-agents -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Help users master the transition from manual coding to managing AI-driven development workflows by focusing on high-level direction, parallel tasking, and rigorous automated review.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Building With AI Agents

Transition from writing lines of code to directing a parallel team of autonomous agents.

Help the user with building with ai agents using insights from 15 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.

## How to Help

1. **Identify Tasks** - Use the Junior Intern framework to find repetitive or well-defined engineering tasks suitable for delegation.
2. **Define Instructions** - Draft precise, granular prompts and provide context through markdown files and past examples.
3. **Manage Parallel Threads** - Direct multiple agents simultaneously across different pull requests or features to scale output.
4. **Review and Iterate** - Maintain oversight by reviewing code logic and using AI-led peer reviews to ensure quality before deployment.

## Core Principles

### The Directorial Shift
Boris Cherny: "100% of my code is written by Claude Code. I have not edited a single line by hand since November. Every day, I ship 10, 20, 30 pull requests. So, at the moment I have, like, five agents running."

Stop manual code editing and transition to directing multiple AI agents simultaneously across different pull requests to maximize productivity.

### Absolute Specificity
Lazar Jovanovic: "AI just don't understand what do you mean when you say, 'You know what I mean?' So you need to be specific. I'm optimizing 100% of my time today on good judgment, clarity, quality, taste."

Abandon the assumption that the tool understands your implicit intent and provide granular instructions as if you are talking to a technical co-founder.

### High-Level Reasoning and Orchestration
Marc Andreessen: "Over the holiday break, it feels like the AI coding thing really hit critical mass and the world's best programmers, including Linus Torvalds, for the first time over the holiday break basically said, 'Yeah, AI is now coding better than we can.'"

The rest: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/building-with-ai-agents/SKILL.md