How to Write with an LLM

Re:How to Write with an LLM by felipeerias on Thursday September 17, 2026 @07:42PM (#49748316)

For commit messages and other technical writing, I use a "narrative coherence" checklist to help ensure that a change is clear and understandable:

- Establish a single thesis an external reviewer could recover from the diff.

- Unify vocabulary across code, comments, tests, and commit message.

- Use the same vocabulary consistently to refer to the same concepts.

- Keep every hunk that serves the thesis; consider the removal or deferral of the rest.

- Introduce abstractions at the point of need.

- Align tests to narrate the same story as the implementation.

- Reconcile the commit message and the diff.

- Order changes expositorily, not chronologically.

- Explain what the change does and why. Do not explain the details of the development process.

- Prefer to edit subtractively.

- Recompile and run all relevant tests after edits.

- Iterate.

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Re:How to Write with an LLM by dormo on Thursday September 17, 2026 @07:46PM (#49748353)

That checklist sounds like at least as much work as writing a commit message.

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Re:How to Write with an LLM by felipeerias on Friday September 18, 2026 @07:03AM (#49752622)

But I only had to write it once.

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