In effect, I’ve always wanted a pair programmer agent, not a zero to one programming agent. Unfortunately models these days are mostly of the latter kind and it has caused a major disruption in the way I work. I’d much rather appreciate a small model making fast and specific edits that I ask if it, rather than ingesting 20 files to make changes, and then starting to write tests, etc.
I think seasoned developers, over time, learn how to work a code base and design components with well defined interfaces, where the implementation is isolated in small well contained classes. SRP etc. more junior programmers can work on those smaller components/services in isolation.
For me this also seems to be a productive way to work along side an agent. Break up functionally into well defined chunks, and let the agent work on each small problem. Take more of a lead in the architecture I suppose.