Working with AI

Published

Last modified: 2026-07-15 23:18:00 (PDT)

This site collects the UCD-SERG lab’s notes on working responsibly and effectively with AI coding assistants: what they are, how to use them, and the policies lab members follow when using them. It was migrated out of the UCD-SERG Lab Manual’s “Working with AI” chapter, which had grown large enough to deserve a dedicated site. For the lab’s broader coding, reproducibility, and collaboration conventions, see the lab manual itself.

Technology in Rapid Evolution

As of early 2026, AI coding assistant technology is changing extremely rapidly, and we are just beginning to figure out how to use these tools effectively ourselves. All information on this site should be taken with extra caution, as best practices and capabilities continue to evolve.

1 Chapters

Policies for Using AI: responsibility for validation, disclosure, attribution, and using AI for journal articles
Coding Agents: what language models, coding agents, and harnesses are; how to work with them; benefits, hazards, and best practices; and configuring your environment
Pull-Request Workflow with Agents: filing issues, claiming work, and driving a pull request to a clean, mergeable state

The notes are available in multiple formats:

HTML Website: Navigate using the navbar for easy access to all pages
RevealJS Slides: Each chapter can generate a presentation format with -slides.html suffix
PDF Handouts: Each chapter can generate a PDF handout with -handout.pdf suffix
DOCX Documents: Each chapter can generate a Microsoft Word document with .docx extension

2 About this website

This website is built with Quarto, an open-source scientific and technical publishing system, from the UCD-SERG qwt (Quarto Website Template).

3 Building the website

To render the website locally:

quarto render

To preview the website with live reload:

quarto preview

The rendered output will be in the _site/ directory, which is published to GitHub Pages.

4 License

See LICENSE.

References

--- title: "Working with AI" format: html: default revealjs: output-file: index-slides.html pdf: output-file: index-handout.pdf docx: output-file: index.docx --- This site collects the UCD-SERG lab's notes on working responsibly and effectively with AI coding assistants: what they are, how to use them, and the policies lab members follow when using them. It was migrated out of the [UCD-SERG Lab Manual](https://ucd-serg.github.io/lab-manual/)'s "Working with AI" chapter, which had grown large enough to deserve a dedicated site. For the lab's broader coding, reproducibility, and collaboration conventions, see the lab manual itself. ::: {.callout-warning} ## Technology in Rapid Evolution As of early 2026, AI coding assistant technology is changing extremely rapidly, and we are just beginning to figure out how to use these tools effectively ourselves. All information on this site should be taken with extra caution, as best practices and capabilities continue to evolve. ::: ## Chapters - [**Policies for Using AI**](chapters/ai-use-policies.qmd): responsibility for validation, disclosure, attribution, and using AI for journal articles - [**Coding Agents**](chapters/coding-agents.qmd): what language models, coding agents, and harnesses are; how to work with them; benefits, hazards, and best practices; and configuring your environment - [**Pull-Request Workflow with Agents**](chapters/pr-workflow-with-agents.qmd): filing issues, claiming work, and driving a pull request to a clean, mergeable state The notes are available in multiple formats: - **HTML Website**: Navigate using the navbar for easy access to all pages - **RevealJS Slides**: Each chapter can generate a presentation format with `-slides.html` suffix - **PDF Handouts**: Each chapter can generate a PDF handout with `-handout.pdf` suffix - **DOCX Documents**: Each chapter can generate a Microsoft Word document with `.docx` extension ## About this website This website is built with [Quarto](https://quarto.org/), an open-source scientific and technical publishing system, from the [UCD-SERG `qwt` (Quarto Website Template)](https://github.com/UCD-SERG/qwt). ## Building the website To render the website locally: ```bash quarto render ``` To preview the website with live reload: ```bash quarto preview ``` The rendered output will be in the `_site/` directory, which is published to GitHub Pages. ## License See [`LICENSE`](https://github.com/d-morrison/wai/blob/main/LICENSE). ## References {.unnumbered} ::: {#refs} :::