AI Vocabulary · 04 Building with AI
What is Coding Agent?
An AI agent that reads, writes and runs code in a project, working through programming tasks step by step.
A coding agent is an agent specialised in software. It can read the files in a repository, write or change code, run tests and commands, and repeat until a task is done. Examples include Claude Code, Cursor's agent mode, GitHub Copilot's agent and OpenAI's Codex.
Coding agents work best when they get clear goals, good project instructions and the right permissions. They can produce a lot of code quickly, which makes review more important, not less.
Why it matters for you
Coding agents change the economics of software. Small teams can build and maintain more, and non-developers can make real changes with guidance. The skill that matters shifts from typing code to describing, reviewing and testing it.
Own it
Your code and your project instructions are your assets. Keep them in your own repository, decide what the agent may run without asking, and keep a human in the loop for anything that reaches customers.
Where it comes from
Coding assistants first completed lines of code; coding agents go further and work through whole tasks. Two 2024 milestones made the idea mainstream: Princeton's open-source SWE-agent, which showed that a well-designed "agent-computer interface" lets a model fix real GitHub issues, and a wave of commercial agents that followed. Today most major AI labs ship their own coding agent.
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