# How do you stay familiar with the code when it's written by an LLM?

DevFeed: [How do you stay familiar with the code when it's written by an LLM?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-do-you-stay-familiar-with-the-code-when-it-s-written-by-an-llm-33531.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.aha.io/engineering/articles/staying-familiar-with-the-code-when-its-written-by-an-llm>)

Published: 2026-07-16T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Aha! Engineering Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/aha-engineering-blog.md>)

Topics: [Large Language Model](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [llm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llm.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article argues that relying heavily on LLMs to write shipped code can reduce developers' familiarity with the code, weakening their ability to remember design decisions, diagnose bugs, guide future changes, and understand dependencies such as migrations. It maintains that hands-on coding, problem solving, and refactoring build the intuition needed to remain responsible for software maintained over time.

## Source excerpt

If you used an LLM to write code you shipped a month ago, how well do you remember it? Would you realize if the code you committed today would break it? If a customer reported a bug, would you quickly think, "Oh, I know what that is" in the same way