AI-Assisted SE Guide

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About This Guide ​

TLDR ​

The AI-Assisted Software Engineering Guide is a practical methodology for building production-ready software with AI. It's written and maintained by Richard Osborne at Digital Bricks, and it documents what has actually worked (and what hasn't) across real projects.

The Author ​

I'm Richard Osborne. I build apps, and I teach founders and teams to build their own. I came to software the long way round — spreadsheets, then no-code tools, then AI-assisted development — which is exactly why this guide assumes nothing and explains everything.

Everything here comes from shipping real projects, including the RISE project that serves as the primary example throughout this guide. When a pattern stops working, the guide changes.

Digital Bricks ​

Digital Bricks is where I do that work: building apps for clients, and teaching people to build and maintain their own with AI.

The Methodology ​

This guide exists because most approaches to AI-assisted coding fail. People expect to describe an app and have AI build it. The reality is more nuanced.

The methodology documented here was developed through practical experience:

  1. Validate first — Use AI for exploratory conversations before committing to build
  2. Document systematically — Create lean documentation that gives AI the context it needs
  3. Work in focused tasks — New conversation per task, with clear scope
  4. Check quality continuously — Confidence scoring and phase audits catch problems early
  5. Build incrementally — Each phase must work before starting the next

This isn't theory. It's what actually works.

History ​

The guide started life as a collaboration between The Low Code Foundation, a French non-profit promoting accessible software development, and Visual Hive, where I was CTO. It's now maintained independently under Digital Bricks. Thanks to both for helping get it off the ground.

Open Source ​

This guide is open source and available on GitHub.

Contributions, corrections, and improvements are welcome. If you've found patterns that work or pitfalls to avoid, the community benefits from your experience.

Contact ​

Work with me

Need help putting this into practice? I work with founders and teams adopting AI-assisted development — working out where it fits, getting a first project off the ground properly, or building and shipping it for you.

Book a call →Visit digitalbricks.io

Acknowledgments ​

This guide was built using the methodology it documents—AI-assisted development with human oversight, quality gates, and iterative refinement. The irony is intentional. The meta-ness is a feature, not a bug.

Special thanks to the developers, founders, and teams who tested these approaches and provided feedback that shaped the methodology.

"Trust the process. It works."