Looking back on a year of AI experimentation, I want to document my tips and tricks for using AI with Drupal development. Early in this journey, after reading books like Beyond Vibe Coding, listening to the creator of Claude Code, and attending Drupal events, I saw and heard how people using AI dramatically increased their productivity.

I keep coming back to Kent Beck's quote: "The value of 90% of my skills just dropped to $0. The leverage for the remaining 10% went up 1000x. I need to recalibrate." It led me to conclude that my goal when using AI is to 10x my productivity by focusing on that remaining 10%: experience, judgment, and understanding of how Drupal works.

Here are my tips and tricks to 10x my productivity using the remaining 10% of my skills. I am highlighting those that can 2x productivity and lead you toward 10x and beyond.

Funny side note: when I asked AI to review this post, it was really unhappy that the 2x tips math didn't add up to 10x, but you get the goal of this post. My hope is that you'll scan or consume this list, take something away, and keep up with our fast-moving times.

Models

I like the output and price of GPT-5.6 Luna. I’d heard that in Ultra mode it rivals the more expensive models, but when I tried it, the code was worse and it took longer.

Rather than building a complex evaluation setup, I run an occasional bake-off: one simple prompt where I already know what a good plan or code looks like. I also ask the AI to research the cost, efficiency, and gossip around my available models. That’s how I learned GPT-6 Luna costs half as much as GPT-5.6 Luna, but the code is half as good.

For Drupal, favor recently trained models, since they know the latest API changes and deprecations.

Harnesses (2x)

I started with the terminal user interfaces (TUIs) for Codex, Claude, and OpenCode, then quickly moved to the desktop apps built on top of them. A desktop harness shows more of what the AI is doing, especially with the integrated browser where you can open a broken page from your local site, say “help me fix this page,” and the agent gets to work. It can also fill out and test a webform.

Open source harnesses are keeping pace with the proprietary ones. I use Codex for Drupal contribution and OpenCode with OpenChamber for work, and both have roughly the same features.

Cost

AI ain’t cheap, and costs will go up. It’s hard to accept that AI will cost more than cable TV, but subscriptions are the best bang for your buck right now, and I’m willing to spend $100-$200 USD a month for some additional job security.

If that’s out of reach, use what you can get for cheap or free. You’ll need more patience for AI slop, but curiosity and ingenuity will get you through most tasks, and they’re what will get you hired at your next job, not the size of your AI bill.

AGENTS.md

Right now, the most important directives I have in my AGENTS.md file are "Don't commit code or comments without my approval" and "All tickets and comments made by an AI agent should start with a note that reads: `AI-assisted by {code agent name}`." Otherwise, I will include critical commands like ddev describe, which ensure the agent knows the current development environment URLs and paths.

Drupal core has an AGENTS.md which provides a similar nudge for LLM-driven contributions.

README.md

Specs and documentation matter, but I keep coming back to this: the closer the documentation is to your code, the more up-to-date and useful it is. AGENTS.md and skills can tell agents to consult a README.md when needed. Humans will always appreciate README.md files.

In Drupal, a module's README.md generally informs the module's project page, so a well-written, organized, up-to-date README.md matters.

Agent Skills (2x)

Any repeatable task, thought, or process should be encapsulated in an Agent skill. Keep in mind that a skill is a shortcut to load some markdown that can reference scripts and templates. I'll continually ask an agent to review and optimize a custom skill after a session; it's a great way to keep a skill useful.

I am currently working on creating a drupa-core-switcher skill that makes it easier for me to switch between the previous, current, and next versions of Drupal using a DDEV command combined with the Composer merge plugin to track and manage Drupal version-specific packages and patches.

Specs

Spec-driven development has increased with AI usage because AI can easily write and maintain a spec. Still, I am unsure whether a spec would be useful or properly maintained for a Drupal project because our code is broken into modules and themes. For example, a custom module's README.md should be the first place to document the who, what, and why of the code.

Plans (2x)

Currently, I set my OpenCode sessions to plan mode by default because I want to see what the agent will do before it starts altering code and eating tokens. I also appreciate that multiple developers could collaborate on a complex plan. There are dedicated skills to export plans, or you can just prompt an agent to export its plan to Markdown.

Within the Drupal community, our tickets are our plans, and I'm personally trying to push my plans to Drupal.org. It is also worth noting that agents tend to know that Drupal has a special issue summary template.

Tasks

It's kind of a given that agents will break things down into tasks, and I've started to lean into this process. For example, when someone hands me a bulleted list of requirements and specifications, I'll have the agent add REQ-000: STATUS to each bullet, then create a plan and task for each requirement.

As agents work through a plan across multiple sessions, I ask them to post comments on what they completed and how they did it so the next agent knows where to pick up. This workflow lets the AI define, track, and complete tasks while keeping me in the loop.

DDEV

DDEV is such an outstanding tool that there is little to say other than to use it.

I recommend exploring add-ons like DDEV Module Developer, which provides code quality validation commands for Drupal module development that agents can leverage. In my AGENTS.md, I include instructions on how to use the commands to review and check code generated by an agent.

CLI/Scripts (2x)

Within a harness, agents will first use CLI commands to understand and navigate your project. You can ask agents to create and maintain custom CLI scripts for you. One of my best examples, which leverages DDEV, is my fairly complex ddev install PRESETS custom command that installs Drupal and applies different Drupal recipes as needed.

Tests

Humans and agents want to know the code they change keeps working as expected, and the code they create meets expectations. Agents readily write tests, and I rarely let an agent ship code I expect to use and update later without test coverage.

Source control

The only thing worth adding is that agents are Git masters and can leverage all available commands and features. Admittedly, I am losing my Git-fu because I've gotten used to asking an AI for the correct way to do complex Git operations, like rebase and revert.

Worktrees (2x)

Worktrees are a Git feature I recently learned about. With DDEV, they let you run multiple instances of the same Drupal project, allowing multiple agents to work on a large codebase and database. For example, in my Drupal Playground, I have worktrees for each contributed module I maintain, and for a client migration, I have a dedicated migration worktree.

Configuration

Agents can read code and documentation and understand precisely how to configure systems.

For Drupal, I've moved everything I'm working on into Drupal Recipes, which include configuration and content. When I'm curious about a new Drupal module or ecosystem, I ask the agent to create a recipe I can use to test it. Yep, I have dedicated Drupal AI initiative recipes that set up Drupal's AI modules with secure API keys.

The beauty of these recipes is that I can see exactly what was required to configure and set up the module. During this process, I can also ask the agent to explain the configuration options for a contrib module that isn't well documented.

Patches

I'm getting really close to saying that agents own my Composer and Git repositories, and I'm just guiding them on what needs to be done. For module updates, I will let the agent re-roll the patch as needed and even push a merge request to Drupal.org. For Composer dependency conflicts, agents are faster at identifying the root cause.

Contribution (2x)

With the Drupal.org CLI installed and the related agent skill enabled, the agent can create an issue, a fork, and an MR for a pesky problem in just a few minutes. As soon as you push your issue to Drupal.org, you get the benefit of multiple eyeballs and agents reviewing your fix, increasing the likelihood that your solution will be merged and that your problem goes away.

Community

Imagine if 1000s of Drupal developers and their agents were contributing patches daily. What would Drupal look like if contributions increased by 10x? I appreciate that Drupal is more than code, and as a community, we can lead the way in safely and pragmatically integrating AI and agents into our collaboration.

Drush (2x)

Agents can definitely figure out how to run Drush eval to execute custom PHP code and dump data, but if you really want to help the agent, have it create custom Drush commands that dump commonly needed data or execute commonly needed tasks.

I created and contributed the Plugin Report module to dump available plugins so agents can more easily examine what plugin types and plugins are available.

AI Learners Club

Just as you'd join the Drupal community, anyone curious about AI should join the AI Learners Club.

Drupal Events

As a community, in-person events define who we are, what we are doing, and where we are going. Talking to fellow Drupal developers about your AI anxiety or struggles can help you feel that you are not alone on this journey.

Debug

This is the simplest starting point for using AI, but make sure the agent fixes the actual error. For example, instead of pasting the error message into a harness chat, I will paste the URL that is throwing the error and say, "Fix this URL." The AI will read the error message, fix the error, and then check that the URL loads as expected.

Ask (2x)

AI can teach you how to use it and help you explore and learn new things. For junior developers, it's essential to use AI as a learning tool before it starts doing things for you. Also use plan mode to understand how the AI interprets the task and how it will complete it.

Most harnesses, especially OpenCode, include a skill to help manage and maintain the harness's configuration.

Review

At this point, AI reviews every line of code I write because it has a better eye for typos and it's never lazy. I'll even manually refactor some sloppy AI-generated code and say, "Load my changes and confirm that they make sense."

Podcasts

It is stunning how much high-quality content smart people are generating by interviewing individuals who have established modern programming techniques over the past 30 years, and by those building the harnesses we are integrating into our development toolboxes.

It is hard to see what the future of AI is, which is why it helps to listen to people working at the frontier labs talk about how they are using AI.

Below are the podcasts I've found to get the latest on Drupal and AI

• Talking Drupal 
• The Pragmatic Engineer
• Lenny's Podcast: Product
• The AI Daily Brief 

Blogs

My very optimistic hope is that humans will communicate and collaborate more with each other while AI handles the busy work. Because of AI, I am thinking, writing, and talking more about coding and Drupal.

Below are blogs and discussions that I follow related to Drupal and AI

• Planet Drupal
• AI Insights - Acquia
• Insights - Tag1
• r/Drupal 
• r/ClaudeCode
• r/Codex
• r/OpenCode 

Books

AI is moving so fast that most books will be out of date before they are published. At the same time, authors tend to invest more energy, time, and thought in a book.

Below are two books I've read on my journey to get more comfortable with Vibe Coding and using AI

• Vibe Coding
  by Gene Kim & Steve Yegge
• Beyond Vibe Coding 
  by Addy Osmani

Frankly, this is uncharted territory for me, yet it feels like the next step in the AI revolution. Personal assistants and automated agents will act on our behalf, and it is hard not to assume they will help us explore, plan, build, and maintain our code and projects.

Below is a summary of the key tips that can help you reach 10x productivity

• Harnesses: Use a desktop harness with an integrated browser so you can see what the AI sees and thinks.
• Agent Skills: Capture any repeatable task or process in a skill, and have the agent refine it after each session.
• Plans: Default to plan mode so you can review what the agent will do before it changes code and eats tokens.
• CLI/Scripts: Have agents create and maintain custom CLI scripts, like a DDEV command that installs Drupal with the recipes you need.
• Worktrees: Combine Git worktrees with DDEV to run multiple agents on multiple tasks in the same project.
• Contribution: Use the Drupal.org CLI so an agent can create an issue, fork, and MR in minutes.
• Drush: Have agents write custom Drush commands that expose the data and operations they keep needing.
• Ask: Ask the AI to explain what it did and why, and use it as a learning tool before it does things for you.

I wrote this post to document my current understanding of AI through tips and tricks and to help people using AI with Drupal, or considering it. Sharing tips and tricks helps us collectively understand how to get the most out of AI. At the same time, AI is moving so fast that my tips and tricks will be out of date by tomorrow. So I hope you will share yours with me.

What are your tricks and tips for using AI in Drupal development?