Codeuteronomy
Drift compounds; the earliest correction is the cheapest
A wrong path costs more every turn it survives. The correction that would have been one word at turn one is a rewrite at turn ten.
An agent builds on its own last move. A small wrong turn doesn't stay small: the next step takes it as given, then the next, until it's load-bearing and unwinding it means unwinding everything on top. Correct when you notice, not when it's convenient. Letting a few more turns run in hope of self-correction gets you elaboration instead.
Correct flatly, in one line. No cushioning, no softening it into a suggestion; the agent has no feelings to spare, and a soft correction reads as optional. Hit Esc and say “no, X.” The same flatness covers your own sunk cost: when your instruction was the wrong one, say so and redirect in the same breath. Politeness toward a bad path is more drift.
How to practice it
Interrupt immediately.
Hit Esc. Stopping a turn is free; unwinding what it builds is not.
State the correction as a flat fact.
“No, it's X” works better than a paragraph of context the agent will over-fit to.
Redirect the approach.
Don't accept a patched wrong one. When it's the same change, “amend” instead of piling on a new commit.
Correct your own asks too.
“Ignore that, do X instead” is cheapest the moment you realize.