The prep-first approach to agentic development
Why research-before-prompting beats “just ask the model” when you care about shipping quality.
10 March 2026 · 1 min read · agentic-ai, engineering
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The shortcut tax
Agents are fast. That is exactly why teams pay a shortcut tax: mock data that never gets replaced, silent failures, tests that assert the wrong thing.
Prep as a system
Prep-first work means: clarify the goal, name constraints, gather references, then prompt. The model does synthesis — you own the specification.
typescript
type Task = { goal: string; constraints: string[]; done: (out: unknown) => boolean }
What changes on teams
You review specs, not vibes. You measure whether the output is testable, observable, and aligned with production rules — the same bar you would use without AI.