Does Code Cleanliness Affect Coding Agents? A Controlled Minimal-Pair Study · HackerPapers discussions

Does Code Cleanliness Affect Coding Agents? A Controlled Minimal-Pair Study — mentioned by paffdragon

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:49:57 GMT

> is there any proof that slop matters beyond our sensibilities as developers? I've seen a few papers recently on the topic in terms of LLM, here is two I found by quick googling * "Does Code Cleanliness Affect Coding Agents? A Controlled Minimal-Pair Study" https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20049 "Our findings suggest that traditional maintainability principles remain highly relevant in the era of AI-driven development, shaping the computational cost and navigational efficiency of coding agents." * "Code for Machines, Not Just Humans: Quantifying AI-Friendliness with Code Health Metrics"…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Does Code Cleanliness Affect Coding Agents? A Controlled Minimal-Pair Study — mentioned by iecheruo

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 15:31:10 GMT

Code structure still matters for cost effectiveness and performance over time https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20049 https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13280

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Does Code Cleanliness Affect Coding Agents? A Controlled Minimal-Pair Study — HN submission

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 23:03:55 GMT

Does code cleanliness affect coding agents? A controlled minimal-pair study

210 points; 93 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.