Today is December 31, 2025. Another year is coming to an end. This year may have brought the biggest change in my coding career. I have completely transformed my coding workflow to adapt to it. After six months, I am so glad I made that decision.

Code

The biggest change this year has been AI coding. In July, I switched jobs from Databend to LanceDB. On the same time, I transitioned my coding workflow to agent‑based coding. I have tried nearly every agentic coding tool available, tested all SoTA coding models, and started a series to share how I code with AI.

By the end of 2025, I can say that 99% of my code is generated by AI. The most important consideration for me when using agent‑based coding tools is trust. I aim to use AI tools in a responsible way.

Here are some frequently asked questions:

Why would a company pay you if 99% of your code is generated?

Because it's a skill, and this skill is valuable. Ultimately, the company hired you as a software developer, not just a code writer. To me, agentic coding makes 99% of my work feel meaningless, but it makes the remaining 1% 10,000% more valuable.

Depending on the context, that 1% could involve:

• Planning: Thinking, designing, and planning the direction we want to take.
• Communication: Talking with users and bosses to understand what they really need.
• Responsibility: As the human, you are accountable for your changes. Of course, you also need to oncall for your online services. Code agents can't do that, at least for now.
• Exploration: Discovering new ideas and patterns that didn't exist before.

Every engineer today will eventually become a kind of manager: they will be leading a team of agents. They need to understand, translate, and break down business needs into tasks for agents. It's a new level of abstraction.

What about the future? Is this the end of software development?

Yes and no. The current form of software development will come to an end, but we will always create new forms of software development. In fact, software development has ended many times before. Every decade brings something new.

In short, agentic coding isn't meant to replace you: it's meant to empower you. Embrace it and stay open to it. You'll come to love it.

How do you build these skills?

Use it, just like building any other skill.

Download Claude Code or Codex today and start using it to build something. You might find it awkward at first. You might think it's dumb and doesn't understand what you mean. You might feel it's too slow and prefer to do things yourself. That's all normal. Think of it like transitioning from crawling on the ground to walking on two feet. It's just part of the process before you can finally run. So be patient and don't give up.

Keep trying it in different projects, or experiment with different ways of instructing it.

Here are a few tips to help you through this process:

• Start with SoTA models and tools. Understand what the best models can do, then choose the best option for you. Don't begin with suboptimal tools, as they might give you the wrong impression of what's possible.
• Subscribe to services instead of buying tokens. It's natural to think about starting with OpenRouter to purchase tokens, but don't. Using top models via subscription is often more cost-effective in the long run. Relying on a token-based approach can shift your mindset toward cost tracking and discourage exploration. For example, you might think, "This task cost me $50 and achieved nothing. AI is dumb. I won't use it again."

Life

Aha, sorry that my 2025 review turned into another post about AI coding. Compared to my coding experience, my daily life hasn’t changed much. I still live in Tianjin with my wife and our two lovely dogs.

This lovely little dog called Theo:

This bigger one called Naihu:

This year we have three trips.

We visited Singapore for Lady Gaga’s Mayhem concert.

We also went to Universal Studios Beijing. It was our first time visiting one of their parks. In my opinion, the best ride there is the Decepticoaster, which is really cool and fantastic. We rode it twice.

In October, we visited Japan for seven days. We traveled to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

We plan to visit more countries in the coming year and are really looking forward to it!

Easter eggs

I have a habit of writing drafts in Apple Notes where I simply jot down whatever I'm thinking without fixing typos or organizing the content. My friends find this very interesting and human. So I've taken a screenshot below for fun. Happy New Year!