How Coding Agents Change the Way We Build Software

There’s a lot of excitement around the new wave of coding agents, and for good reason. The first generation that works has arrived. These tools can write code, debug issues, and refactor entire modules with minimal human input. They’re not perfect, but they’re useful, and they’re improving rapidly.

What’s changed

Earlier generations of code assistants could autocomplete lines or suggest snippets. The new agents go further. They take on tasks: “fix this bug,” “add authentication to this endpoint,” “refactor this module to use async.”

You describe what you want. The agent reads the codebase, makes a plan, implements changes across multiple files, and presents a pull request. Some agents run autonomously for hours, tackling complex multi-step work without supervision.

This isn’t theoretical. I use these tools daily. They’ve changed how I build software.

How work has shifted

The shift feels less like working with a tool and more like managing a very junior developer. You give direction, check outputs, and course-correct when things go off track. Some tasks that once took hours now take minutes.

The gains are most noticeable in repetitive work: writing boilerplate, converting between formats, adding tests for edge cases. Agents excel where requirements are clear and success can be verified.

Where they struggle is in design decisions, understanding unspoken conventions, and knowing when to push back on a bad idea. These remain human responsibilities.

What this means for developers

Some claim that developers will become obsolete. I see the opposite. The leverage coding agents provide makes developer time more valuable, not less. The people who learn to direct these agents effectively will be far more productive than those who don’t.

What changes is the ratio of thinking to typing. When implementation is partly automated, the strategic parts of software development, deciding what to build, how to structure it, and when to say no, become proportionally more important.

Practical advice

If you haven’t tried these tools, start simple. Give an agent a well-scoped task in a codebase you understand. Review everything it produces. Get a feel for where it excels and where it fails.

Check your code often. Agents can go off track, and catching problems early is much easier than debugging a tangled mess later. Be willing to reset to a known good state and try again with better instructions.

Finally, remember that you’re the architect. Agents are tools that extend your reach. The judgement, the vision, and the responsibility remain with you.