AI coding agent vocabulary
AI coding agent vocabulary for robust app workflows.
Use these terms when a coding agent keeps producing screen-by-screen fixes instead of a durable state, failure, and recovery model.
Use these terms
Statechart
Models allowed states, events, guards, and invalid transitions before code is written.
Step state
Gives every step a lifecycle: active, blocked, valid, complete, failed, or recoverable.
Transition table
Turns back, next, submit, edit, retry, and cancel behavior into explicit rules.
Guard condition
Stops invalid movement until required facts, permissions, or validations are true.
Draft persistence
Keeps unfinished work safe across refreshes, tab closes, network failures, and return visits.
Idempotency
Makes retries and double submits safe instead of duplicating side effects.
Checkpoint
Creates safe resume points after durable steps.
Fallback UI
Prevents loading, partial-data, API, and component failures from becoming dead ends.
Recovery path
Defines what users see and how they continue after each failure mode.
Before and after prompt
Weak ask
Fix this multi-step builder. It loses progress and breaks when one step fails.
Exact Terms ask
Model this flow with a statechart, step state, transition table, guard conditions, draft persistence, idempotency, checkpoints, fallback UI, retry policy, and recovery paths for partial failure.
What to ask the agent to return
State model
A list of states, events, allowed transitions, rejected transitions, and invariants.
Failure plan
Timeouts, retries, fallback UI, non-retryable errors, and user recovery paths.
Persistence plan
Draft ownership, save points, checkpoints, resumability, and state reconciliation rules.
Acceptance criteria
Tests for refresh, back/next, two tabs, double submit, API failure, stale saves, and resume.
Common questions
Why do AI coding agents break multi-step flows?
They often optimize for visible screens instead of explicit state, transition, persistence, and failure contracts.
Should I ask for a state machine every time?
Use state-machine language when the flow has multiple steps, validation, async saves, retries, resume behavior, or side effects.
What is the fastest improvement to a brittle builder?
Ask for a transition table and recovery paths before asking for component code.