#best-practices
4 articles exploring best-practices. Expert insights and analysis from our editorial team.
Articles
Prompt Engineering Patterns 2026: What Actually Works Now
Prompt engineering in 2026 prioritizes structured reasoning through chain-of-thought techniques, strategic use of XML tags, and model-specific optimization. Research shows that explicit reasoning instructions improve accuracy by up to 61% over zero-shot prompting, while automated prompt optimization (OPRO) can boost performance by 8% on mathematical reasoning tasks.
Function Calling Best Practices: LLMs That Actually Use APIs Correctly
Function calling enables LLMs to interact with external systems through structured API calls, but reliability requires careful schema design, error handling patterns, and validation strategies to prevent hallucinated parameters and malformed requests.
The Art of AI Pair Programming: Patterns That Actually Work
AI pair programming is a collaborative coding methodology where developers work alongside AI coding assistants like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot. The most effective approach involves understanding when to delegate routine tasks to AI while maintaining human oversight for complex architecture decisions, security-critical code, and quality validation.
Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding: A Fast.ai Critique of AI-Assisted Development
Fast.ai's Rachel Thomas warns that unchecked AI-assisted coding creates 'dark flow'—a dangerous state where developers feel productive while producing unmaintainable code, with research showing AI tools can actually slow development by 19%.