📈 Letting AI Drive: From Hell Loops to Happy Commits
Ashley Childress

Ashley Childress @anchildress1

About: SSE @ Home Depot. Specialize in distributed backend systems. Happy and content playing second - all of the freedom and none of the responsibility!

Location:
Georgia, United States
Joined:
May 30, 2025

📈 Letting AI Drive: From Hell Loops to Happy Commits

Publish Date: Jun 18
3 2

What does 600,000+ lines of AI-generated code look like in the wild?

🛠️ What I Built (Still Private)

The project lives inside company infrastructure and isn’t public (yet).

But it’s real. And it works.

  • NodeJS-based
  • Structured with full test coverage
  • Designed to be extended by others (once approved)
  • Architecture evolved through prompt iteration

If I get approval, I’ll share everything — code, planning docs, prompt chains, and even some of the generated reports. Might take time, but it’s in progress.


📊 Code & Commit Stats

Section Files Lines
Source Code 19 2,417
Tests 25 5,424
Config 17 465
GitHub (instructions + prompts) 11 693
Copilot Output (raw history + generated reports) 52 597,908
User Docs 5 733
Total 129 607,640

Yes, those numbers are real.

Yes, Copilot occasionally lies — but it does ship.


📆 Git Commit Summary

From the full project commit history:

  • Files changed: 514
  • Lines added: 626,703
  • Lines removed: 5,011

Commit messages were detailed, line-item breakdowns — generated by Copilot and checked by Commitlint.

Several early Copilot hell loops led to entire archived branches in the beginning.

But as I refined prompts and adjusted expectations, the implementation strategy matured.

Fewer rewrites, cleaner commits, better momentum.


⚠️ What This Isn’t (But Still Is)

  • Not production-ready
  • Not public
  • Not a product

But it is:

  • A real, working proof of concept
  • A hands-on case study
  • Enterprise-driven architecture and implementation (yes, really)
  • A patience-builder
  • Magic + madness = perfect

🎨 Parting Thought

Happy committing!

Happy Commits

“There are no mistakes, only happy little commits.”

— Bob Ross × GitHub Copilot


✨ Let’s Compare Notes

Been through the AI dev trenches? Want to swap commit stats, prompting techniques, or chaos stories?

I’m always down to talk shop — just give me a minute to come up for air.

Still chasing approval for the repo, but if you’re curious (or skeptical), I’m open to questions, ideas, or even a friendly challenge.


This was Part 2 of the series.

If I get approval, I’ll follow up with sanitized prompt guides, redacted instruction templates, or maybe even a Copilot-powered case study... written by ChatGPT.


🛡️ RAI Disclaimer

Everything I share here is my own perspective—created with the help of AI tools (GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and their friends), but always with a human in the loop. I do my best to catch accidental bias and fact-check, but if you ever spot something odd, let me know! AI isn’t perfect, and neither am I.

TL; DR: AI helped, but you can blame me for the chaos! 🫠

Comments 2 total

  • Admin
    AdminJun 18, 2025

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  • DevOps Fundamental
    DevOps FundamentalJun 28, 2025

    Great post—really enjoyed your insights!

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