# The 7 skills I actually use every day with AI coding agents

DevFeed: [The 7 skills I actually use every day with AI coding agents](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-7-skills-i-actually-use-every-day-with-ai-coding-agents-18322.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://newsletter.aiengineer.co/p/the-7-skills-i-actually-use-every>)

Author: Owain Lewis

Published: 2026-05-15T11:24:18Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [The AI Engineer](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-ai-engineer.md>)

Topics: [AI-assisted coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-assisted-coding.md>), [Loop Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/loop-engineering.md>), [Command-line interface](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cli.md>), [codex](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/codex.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [ai-coding-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-coding-agents.md>), [cli](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cli.md>), [codex](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/codex.md>), [coding-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/coding-agents.md>), [skills](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/skills.md>), [workflow](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/workflow.md>)

## AI overview

An opinion article argues that productive work with AI coding agents does not require large collections of skills, MCP servers, plugins, or complex configuration. It presents a small set of preferred practices, including clarifying requirements before coding and breaking work into reviewable tasks.

## Source excerpt

My favourite Codex skills for building software.