How humans and coding agents design software together.
Intent Engineering for Coding Agents is a practical book for senior developers already using coding agents in real codebases. Its focus is simple: make human intent explicit enough that agents implement decisions instead of guessing at them.
Read the book online: https://intent-engineering-for-coding-agents.github.io/book/
The book is organized around five core parts and a reference section:
- Foundation: the source-controlled workspace as shared ground, with decisions, design docs, specs, and an agent-facing index.
- Agent Instructions:
AGENTS.mdand the.agents/hub that tell each coding agent how the repo is structured, reviewed, and constrained. - Spec-Driven Development: change-sized specs before code, with OpenSpec as the working example.
- Quality and Verification: tests as proof of intent, with stable AC IDs, coverage pairs, PR taxonomy, and checks that keep intent and generated code aligned.
- Team Workflows: adoption, trunk-based development with agents, cross-team coordination, and a time-bounded account of what is still unsettled.
- Reference: glossary, living principles, tooling snapshot, the
ieccompanion repo, an adoption checklist, and honest maturity notes.
This GitHub organization holds the published book, its source, and the companion tooling.
| Name | What it is | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Book site | Published version of Intent Engineering for Coding Agents. | https://intent-engineering-for-coding-agents.github.io/book/ |
| Book source | VitePress source for the book. | https://github.com/intent-engineering-for-coding-agents/book |
Intent Engineering Checker (iec) |
Companion CLI and example repo that concretely shows how to structure a repository as the book describes, including AGENTS.md, ADRs, OpenSpec specs, and test traceability. It is a real tool, but it exists primarily as an example and is not production-grade. |
https://github.com/intent-engineering-for-coding-agents/cli |
- Start with the published book if you want the full method and rationale.
- Browse the book source if you want to inspect the content, structure, or contribute fixes.
- Use
iecif you want a concrete example of the repo structure and conventions described in the book. It is a real CLI, but it should be read mainly as an illustrative companion rather than production-grade tooling.