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AI-Driven Development

A complete, practical book on building software when AI writes the code

Edition: 1.0 · Type: Methodology + operating manual

What this book is

This is a complete guide to AIDD (AI-Driven Development) — a way of building software in which an AI agent writes most of the code and people do the two things AI cannot reliably do alone: decide what to build, and verify that what was built is correct.

It is written to be read once front to back, then kept open beside you as a working manual. The early chapters explain why the method has the shape it does; the middle chapters explain each step in detail; the later chapters explain how to operate it across a real team and product; the appendices are copy-paste reference material.

A single worked example — transferring money between a user's own accounts — runs through the entire book so that every abstract step has a concrete form you can see.

Who it is for

Anyone who builds software with AI in the loop: engineers, architects, testers, designers, product owners, and the managers who lead them. No part assumes you have read the others; cross-references point you to what you need.

The method in one paragraph

For every feature, before AI writes any code, you write four short artifacts in order — the rules it must obey, those rules as pass/fail scenarios, the data and interface contract, and the failing tests — and then you direct the AI to make the tests pass without changing them, and finally you verify the result through evidence rather than inspection. That ordered set of artifacts is the method. The code is disposable; the artifacts are the durable asset. Direction comes before speed, and trust comes from passing tests rather than from reading code and finding it plausible.

The flow

Specify → Scenarios → Contract → Tests → Build → Verify → observe, then repeat.

Table of contents

Part I — Foundations - 00 · The shift: why AIDD exists - 01 · Core principles - 02 · The flow, and what is disposable

Part II — The method, step by step - 03 · Step 1 — Specify - 04 · Step 2 — Scenarios - 05 · Step 3 — Contract - 06 · Step 4 — Tests - 07 · Step 5 — Build - 08 · Step 6 — Verify - 09 · The loop — observe and learn

Part III — Operating the method - 10 · Project setup and stages - 11 · Governance - 12 · Roles and responsibilities - 13 · Adoption and onboarding - 14 · The foundation: project context across milestones

Lineage - 15 · Foundations & Lineage

Releasing - 16 · Releasing

Part IV — Reference - Appendix A · Templates - Appendix B · Prompt library - Appendix C · Glossary - Appendix D · The worked example, end to end - Appendix E · Checklists - Appendix F · Document requirements matrix (Project → Milestone → Task) - Appendix G · References & lineage

Conventions used in this book

  • ▶ Example marks the running worked example.
  • Do / Don't boxes give the rule in its shortest form.
  • A gate is a checkpoint with an explicit pass/fail exit. Its outcome is always one of PASS, RISK-ACCEPTED (a signed waiver), or HARD-STOP.
  • File names like SPEC.md, features/*.feature, contracts/* refer to the artifacts you create per feature; see Appendix A.
  • Where this book uses a plain step name, the formal phase name (for teams mapping to a larger standard) appears once in Appendix C.