Devs who use AI assistants at work: How do you do it safely & effectively?
Posted by chjassu@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 5 comments
Hey folks đź‘‹
I'm a developer who recently started using AI tools (Claude/ChatGPT) to boost my coding productivity. Currently accessing them through a VPS tunnel since they're restricted at work. Before you grab the pitchforks - I know the risks, and that's exactly why I'm here.
I'm looking for practical advice from devs who've found a sweet spot using AI assistants without compromising security or their jobs. Specifically:
- How do you sanitize your prompts to avoid sharing sensitive code/info?
- What are your best practices for using AI to improve both legacy code and new development?
- What boundaries have you set for yourself when using AI at work?
- Any specific workflows you've found particularly effective?
Currently working on both frontend and backend development, looking to optimize performance and build new features more efficiently.
Kindly do not lecture about policy violations - I'm specifically seeking input on doing this responsibly and safely if you're already using these tools. Please share your experiences!
atmosphericfractals@reddit
I don't use them at all, they slow me down and after a while I'm so detached from the code that is written that I lose a lot of my mental documentation of how everything works as a whole.
The one time I actually benefited from using it was when I was picking up a new language and had to do some product-specific things that I didn't want to search through documentation for. The downside to that is it indexed outdated documentation and had me chasing my tail for a while because the code provided was no longer applicable.
After a few instances of that, I just gave up wasting time using these tools.
They're good for writing emails with fluff, that's about all I find them useful for.
\~20yrs experience here.
imti283@reddit
"mental documentation" thanks for giving it a name.
dvogel@reddit
I use them quite sparingly but when I do use them I run Qwen2.5-Coder locally via llama.cpp.
call_Back_Function@reddit
It all depends where you code repos are. If you’re using anything owned by Microsoft. GitHub, azure, etc. Using copilot and chat gpt are non issues. Ms owns it too to bottom. If your outside that chances are there is an ai tool that’s part of your environment. Use that because they are already housing your code.
4InchesOfury@reddit
I contacted procurement and they gave me a license. No real restrictions, I just use it as a smart auto complete.