Plan in ask or architect mode before Aider edits a file, keep only the files that need to change in the chat, and review what it committed before anything merges. Each step below comes from Aider's documentation and from engineers who have used it daily for a year or more.
When you need this
- Engineers have installed Aider and results vary from one person to the next.
- Sessions drift as more files pile into the chat.
- Reviewers receive long runs of small Aider commits with no plan attached.
- You are moving a pilot group from trying Aider to using it on production code.
Evaluation criteria
Write the conventions down
Does every engineer's Aider read the same project rules?
Look forA short CONVENTIONS.md committed to the repository and loaded read-only through the read: key in .aider.conf.yml, so it is cached when prompt caching is on. Engineers keep one per project, and one writes a year of preferences into it.
Plan before code mode
Does Aider understand the change before it touches a file?
Look forAsk mode, which discusses the change without editing, for anything beyond a small fix, then a short go-ahead in code mode. Architect mode pairs a planning model with an editing model, and engineers often pick a reasoning model as architect and a cheaper one as editor.
Curate the chat
Is only the code that matters in front of the model?
Look forOnly the files that need to change, added with /add, plus one or two references added with /read-only. Use /drop on files once a step is done. Aider's own tips warn that irrelevant code confuses the model, and one engineer caps context near 25,000 tokens.
Keep each change small
Can a reviewer read what Aider changed in one sitting?
Look forOne step at a time, about one commit's worth of change per request. Engineers do renames and large moves themselves and give Aider the edits it handles well.
Let lint and tests run
Does Aider see the errors its edits cause?
Look forAuto-lint on, its default, with your own linter set through --lint-cmd, and --test-cmd with --auto-test so failures go back to the model. Work on a branch so a run of fixes can be reverted together.
Review the commits
Does an Aider change meet the same bar as a colleague's?
Look forNormal code review on the squashed branch. Check the diff of every file. Engineers report unrequested edits elsewhere in a file and, in one case, a regenerated page that erased a UI.
Questions to ask vendors
- Which files should engineers add by default for each part of the codebase, and which belong in .aiderignore?
- Which tasks go to ask or architect mode first, and who decides?
- Will we squash Aider's per-edit commits before review, or keep them?
- How do we confirm ask mode stayed read-only? A July 2026 issue reports an edit made in ask mode.
Red flags
- Whole directories added to the chat by habit.
- Large features requested in one prompt with no plan.
- Agent-written commits merged without the review a human change would get.
- Conventions that live only in one engineer's home directory.
Products in this piece
Sources
- Official documentation
- 7
- Public source
- 7
- Aider docs: Tips
- Aider docs: Chat modes
- Aider docs: Specifying coding conventions
- Aider docs: Linting and testing
- Aider docs: In-chat commands
- Aider docs: Git integration
- Aider docs: FAQ
- Hacker News, TeMPOraL: a short CONVENTIONS.md per project (May 16, 2025)
- Hacker News, m3adow: architect or ask mode before code mode (May 12, 2025)
- Hacker News, Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe: chat modes, edit formats, small chunks, and convention files after a year (May 8, 2025)
- Hacker News, BeetleB: branches, a 25k-token context cap, and Aider as cheaper than Claude Code (Mar 9, 2025)
- Harper Reed: My LLM codegen workflow atm (Feb 16, 2025)
- ramamurthy valavandan, DEV Community: When AI Coding Tools Break Your UI (Mar 12, 2026)
- GitHub issue #5374: Aider makes changes in ask mode (Jul 1, 2026)