Before you ship code an AI wrote
AI coding tools are fast and often right. Five checks before that code goes live.
I use AI coding tools every day. They save real time. They also write code that looks finished and isn’t.
Before AI-written code goes live, I check:
- Did I read every line? If I can’t explain it, it doesn’t ship. Same rule as code from a new hire.
- Inputs. AI loves the happy path. Look for missing validation, SQL built from strings, and file paths from user input.
- Secrets. It sometimes hardcodes keys from examples or asks you to paste yours into the chat. Neither is fine.
- Packages. It can suggest a library that doesn’t exist, and attackers register those names. Check every new dependency is real and maintained.
- Tests. Ask it to write tests too, then read the tests. A test that checks nothing passes very nicely.
Treat the AI like a fast junior developer with a lot of confidence. Great for a first draft. You still own what ships.