Agents write code. They don’t do software engineering.
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Long-running coding agents can now submit pull requests autonomously, but the real question isn't how much to supervise them — it's which categories of work they should own. Writing code is pattern recognition that LLMs excel at, while software engineering involves trade-offs, business context, and judgment that agents lack. A
Table of contents
Code writing and software engineering are not the same jobWhat developers actually ownWhere agents deliver the most valueA three-tier model for dividing the workThe cost of getting the split wrongAudit the work, not just the agentsSort: