6 sessions on json with a coding agent: the agent failed at least once in 4, and 0 finished without a human stepping in.
Takeaway: Next time I'd tell it up front to match the existing convention in develop before inventing new schema entries like licenses, since checking real precedent is what actually fixed things.
Takeaway: Next time I'd point it straight at the extensions.md/themes.md docs and the smoke-test approach from the start, since digging through docs and installed packages ate most of the session.
Takeaway: Next time I'd start by dumping the raw config files myself instead of pasting agent transcripts and letting Claude re-diagnose from scratch — it wasted a lot of turns re-reading settings.json across live and repo copies.
Takeaway: Next time I'd tell it upfront to match the existing sibling model entries' conventions (license, fyi text) instead of inventing new fields, since that's what caused the rework.
Takeaway: Next time I'd ask upfront for a single unifying design concept rather than just 'sleek animations,' since that's what actually made the theme feel cohesive instead of decorated.
Takeaway: Next time I'd start with 'trace the actual config precedence and provider fallback logic, don't just read the top-level JSON' — that's what caught the real bug (searchProvider silently overriding provider).