December 2024. Found a VS Code extension - Cline. Connect the API, write a task, it creates files on its own.

"Create REST API for users."

Cline started working. Controllers folder. Models folder. Routes folder. File after file. I'm watching, thinking - wow, this is the future.

An hour later - 50 files. Run it - errors. One function calls another that doesn't exist. Imports are broken. Same thing in three places, but different.

"Fix the errors."

Fixed something, broke something else. Another hour. Code grows, errors multiply.

"Fix the new errors."

More files. More broken imports. At some point I realized - it's not fixing, it's generating garbage on top of garbage.

Deleted everything. All 50 files. Started over.

Now differently: I decide structure. I create files. Cline only writes code inside files that I defined. One task at a time. Check each file before the next task.

It's not "AI writes the project". It's "I write the project, AI helps with routine". Took me 2 hours and 50 deleted files to understand the difference.