Run agents as an engineering team where nobody approves their own work
by PaperChaseWebb
A former head of a 150-person engineering org reports that agents opened 1,363 of 1,575 pull requests over ten weeks. The setup works because the ticket is the spec and the test, and a separate checker signs off every change.
- Price
- Free
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Setup
- 1 hr
- Format
- .md file
run-agents-as-an-engineering-team-where-nobody-approves-their-own-work.md · 3 KB · direct download, no signup
What you end up with
Two rules carry most of the weight: the agent that did the work never signs it off, and every acceptance criterion needs evidence (a CI line or a screenshot).
What you get
- A plain-language summary of the workflow
- A fill-in prompt template
- What to watch out for
- A link to the original source
Who it is for
Builders who already use AI agents and want a proven workflow they can copy into their own project.
Works with
Dashed chip: Plain Markdown, so it also pastes into other agents such as Grok Bot, Hermes, OpenClaw or Muse. We list those as compatible by format only, not as tested.
Tools needed
Cost to run: Free with the agent plan you already use.
Time to result: One working session
How it works
Rewrite your next ten tickets so each has numbered acceptance criteria
Rewrite your next ten tickets so each has numbered acceptance criteria a checker can verify
Expected: Done before you move to the next step.
Give the writing agent and the reviewing agent separate prompts and se
Give the writing agent and the reviewing agent separate prompts and separate permissions
Expected: Done before you move to the next step.
Require one piece of evidence per criterion: a CI result, a test name
Require one piece of evidence per criterion: a CI result, a test name or a staging screenshot
Expected: Done before you move to the next step.
Cap work in progress and keep a Blocked column that a person checks da
Cap work in progress and keep a Blocked column that a person checks daily
Expected: Done before you move to the next step.
Log cost per ticket and look at the slowest, most expensive tenth ever
Log cost per ticket and look at the slowest, most expensive tenth every week
Expected: Done before you move to the next step.
Sample prompt from the pack
Apply this workflow to [your project]: 1. Rewrite your next ten tickets so each has numbered acceptance criteria a checker can verify 2. Give the writing agent and the reviewing agent separate prompts and separate permissions 3. Require one piece of evidence per criterion: a CI result, a test name or a staging screenshot 4. Cap work in progress and keep a Blocked column that a person checks daily 5. Log cost per ticket and look at the slowest, most expensive tenth every week Stop and ask me before anything irreversible: deploys, payments, sends or deletes.
Adapted by PaperChaseWebb. Not the original author's prompt.
Free preview of the file
# Run agents as an engineering team where nobody approves their own work PaperChase agent use case (free feed entry), version 1.0. Source: [u/Efficient-Trick-4384 on r/AI_Agents](https://www.reddit.com/r/AI_Agents/comments/1xfwwpw/i_used_to_run_a_150person_engineering_org_now/), 2026-10-26. ## What they did Each ticket carries acceptance criteria that double as the test. An agent writes the change, and a different step reads the CI results, checks the diff against each criterion and attaches a staging screenshot per criterion before anything merges. Work in progress is capped at 15 items and blocked work sits in its own column where people can see it. They also track cost per story: a median of about $36, with one in ten stories costing over $147, and review taking about 11% of total spend. ## Worth knowing Two rules carry most of the weight: the agent that did the work never signs it off, and every acceptance criterion needs evidence (a CI line or a screenshot). Tracking cost per story shows which kinds of tickets are worth giving to agents at all. Figures are as reported by the author.
Worth knowing
- Two rules carry most of the weight: the agent that did the work never signs it off, and every acceptance criterion needs evidence (a CI line or a screenshot). Tracking cost per story shows which kinds of tickets are worth giving to agents at all. Figures are as reported by the author.
- Figures are as reported by the original author and were not re-measured by us.
Questions
Where does this come from?
A public post credited to u/Efficient-Trick-4384 on r/AI_Agents. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AI_Agents/comments/1xfwwpw/i_used_to_run_a_150person_engineering_org_now/
Is it free?
Yes. Feed entries are free to read and download.
Details
Version 1.0 · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · Markdown version of this page
License: Personal and commercial use. Credit the original source when you share the workflow. Download terms
Related
AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md and Cursor rules starter files
Six fill-in instruction files for coding agents (base, Next.js plus Supabase, FastAPI, browser game, CLAUDE.md pointer, scoped Cursor rules) and 8 prompts to write, trim and test your own.
Ask-first rules for AI agents: hard nos, approval cards and a test set
Paste-in rules that make an agent ask before it sends, spends, posts or deletes, define what a real yes is, and stop retries after a no, plus 12 test scenarios to check it.